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AUTHOR 


HUTTON,  WILLIAM 
HOLDEN 


TITLE : 


THE  POLITICAL 
DISTURBANCES 

PLACE: 

OXFORD 

DATE: 

1881 


Master  iNegative  # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LlBRAl^ii:S 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


9hms^  -i, 


BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


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Hutton,    -Villiara  Ilolden,    1850-19M.  ^ 

r-v-p   n.lit^cal   disturbances   v,hich  accompanied 
th.   e-i'^l-r   r)eriod   of  the  Reformation   in  Germany; 

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MflNUFflCTURED   TO   PIIM   STfiNDRRDS 
BY   APPLIED   IMRGE,     INC. 


J^&--*»-^ 


riif  PoUtiraM3i!5iturt)anrcss  toijirl)  arrompanirt  ^)n 
OFarlj)  iJcrioi  of  tijr  ISrformation  in  igrrmani). 


THE 


STANHOPE     ESSAY, 


FOR 

1881. 


BY 


WILLIAM    HOLDEN    HUT^^^^V, 


MAGDALEN   COLLEGE. 


'Vi^ioOeV  fldy^Cli,    €(Ti.ii6iV   (fx'ifSoi 


< 


OXFORD : 
H.  H.  BLACKWELL,  50,  BROAD  STREET. 

LONDON : 
SIMPKIN,  MARSHALL  Sc  CO. 

1881. 


55^Wi^« 


/ 


\ 


<b  v^  ^  % 


^^3«S>^, 


(Laiunuiia  eliiiiier^iti 


LIBR 


/An 


■\     \,  .  ,,-f  .11.  *f\_^  ^    _/-.  ^/ 


I 


■-■«( 


Cije  political  JBiisturftancfS  toftiri)  accon^jameij  tin 


\ 


OJarlg  i^moir  of  tfje  Meforttiatioii  in  a 


rriiijiip. 


THE 


STANHOPE     RSSxW 


FOR 


1881. 


BY 


WILLIAM    HOLDEN    HUTTON, 


MAGDALEN   COLLEGE. 


"E^iaOev  fidxaij  ccruSev  (fyofSoi. 


i 


'>cXfs:J 


OXFORD : 
B.  H.  BLACKWELL,  50,  BROAD  STREET. 

LONDON : 
SIMPKIN,  MARSHALL  &  CO. 

,1881. 


I* 


/r^7  2-^-  (^'^^^ 


OXFORD  : 

PRINTED   BY    UPSTONE   AND    DOE, 

QUEEN   STREET. 


\ 


r 


CONTENTS. 


I 


Introduction    

I.     1521— 1523.     From  the  Edict  of  Worms  to  the  death 
ofSeckingen  

II.     1523— 1525.     The  Peasants'  War      

III.  1525— 1547.     The  Reformation  in  the  hands  of  the 

Princes.    The  Anabaptists.     The  Schmalkaldic 
War  

IV.  1547—1555-     From  the  Battle  of  Miihlberg  to  the 

Peace  of  Augsburg  


PAGE. 
I 


6 

12 


22 


37 


/ 


/ 


ERRATA. 


f'age  6.      For  rci^— 


^517—1522   read   i<;2i  — 


12.       For  1C22 — 


521-1523. 


522      1525  read  1^27. 


523-1525. 


nwiiwllfliiiiiriniy 


4 


THE  POLITICAL  DISTURBANCES  WHTCH 

ACCOMPANIED  THE  EARLY  PERIOD  01    THE 

REFORMATION    ^'^^    GERMANY 


i 


r< 


f 


It 


V 


J 


I 


INTRODUCTORY. 

The  Reformation  has  been  so  customarily  regarded  as  a  great 
religious  impulse,  bearing  down  all  opposition  and  directing  all  the 
action  of  the  age,  that  its  political  counterpart  has  often  seemed 
in  danger  of  being  forgotten^<^he  full  meaning  of  the  Reforma- 
tion has  not  been  understoooby  those  to  whom  it  has  seemed  a 
period  of  entirely  religious  progress  or  revolution,  and  by  whom 
Its  theological  aspect  has  been  regarded  as  its  only  vital  one.  No 
doubt  the  great  movement  received  at  this  time  its  success  f r  >m 
the  bold  struggle  begun  and  maintained  against  the  corruptiuii, 
as  well  doctrinal  as  practical,  which  had  obscured  the  true  teach- 
ing of  the  Church, — and  the  attention  of  the  earnest  spirits  who, 
in  every  age,  strive  for  the  reform  of  abuses,  and  the  improvement 
of  social  life,  was  in  this  particularly  directed  to  the  reform  of  the 
body  which  should  itself  have  been  the  preacher  of  enlightenment. 
But  the  necessity  for  some  such  revolution  was  to  be  found  in 
every  part  of  the  body  politic,  and  the  theses  of  Luther  were  but 
the  instruments  by  which  the  work  was  effected. 

Of  course,  though  we  recognise  the  importance  of  the  political 
aspect  of  the  Reformation,  and  regard  the  subject  especially  from 
that  point  of  view,  it  would  be  impossible  to  treat  at  all  of  the  age 
without  a  constant  reference,  direct  or  implied,  to  the  religious 
element.  ^^ 

The  c^mencement  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  is  not  merely  an 
arbitrary  division  of  time,  but  marks  a  real  era  in  the  history  of 
Europe.  If  it  can  ever  be  said  that  one  age  passes  definitely 
away  at  a  certain  period,  and  is  succeeded  by  another,  the  agree- 
ment of  historians  to  make  this  the  end  of  the  middle  ages  is 
natural  and  well  founded.  The  most  superficial  study  will  teach 
us  the  real  change  effected  by  that  marvellous  birth  of  knowledge 
which  seems  to  date  from  the  time  when  Florence  ceased  to  be 
free.  It  was  a  revolution  that  affected  all  countries,  and  those 
none  the  less  surely  where  its  influence  prevailed  in  peace.  The 
spirit  of  different  nations  made  the  impulse  of  the  age  their  -own  : 
what  was  the  revival  of  Learning  and  the  Arts  in  Italy  was  in 

B 


2 

Germany  the  New  Birth  of  Religion  and  Morality.     The  Refer- 
Snnrof  th/R''"''  '^^  counterpart,  as  it  was  in  a  sense  the 
^T.T^\        u^  Renaissance.  p\  glance  at  the  state  of  Germany 
he  country  where  we  are  parlicularly  to  examine  the  nature  of 

can  7ZZT;  "'i'  "^""'^.  '^''-     ^'  ^"  ""i'^d  nation,  Germany 
powerful ni  ""'  '^"  '""^  *°  ''^^^  «^'^'«''-      A  number  of 

Lknowle/Jed't.''  ""'"^  Pf"y  '°'"'^''  ^"'l  ^"-"^  important  cities 
Roman   F^n  ^r'"?'  ^"P-l^-^^^y  °f  the  Head  of  the  Holy 

ChrTstendnT  h"-.    K^^  ^'''^'^  ■''y  ""^'^^  '^e  nominal   unity  of 
t^hnstendom    had    been    mamtained— the   presumption   that  the 

z:zv::ir''r''''''  I'^^^i'  -  ^^e  Lnds  oTthe'Rit 

£.mperor  as  the  ecclesiastical  in  those  of  the  Roman  Pontiff— was 
saw  tir'l  '"""'^  ^.'^^"  "?-"•  The  time  of  the  RenaLance 
on!  andth7.T'rv°^"'r^^°'^^°'^""  ^"'P'^^  '"t°  ^  Germanic 
been  nriti  V  °' '^u'^  ''"""'  ^^''^  '"  P^«'  ""'""^s  had 
in  con^sTiJuHnn  °H '°  "?"ch  contest.^  A  body  so  heterogeneous 
nto?n,  f"  r  ''•'°,*'°'"'^  m  interests  could  not  settle  down 
h.  f  J  ^  ""  °^  "."''^'^  ^="°"-  H'he  nobles  were  gradually  losin- 
the  feudal  power  by  which  they  had  held  their  position  during   he 

S  refL'rm'ha'd  l^f?  It  '""^  ''°^^  °''^^  ^'^'^^"'^  Ce'ntury  all  m  afure^ 
GoltnBlu  itruT  r''  '"?.Pr""' P"^''^g«^  untouched.  The 
Fourteenth  kn^  ^^  remedied  so  many  of  the  abuses  of  the 
riXsof  h.  KM?'  '^"'u"°^  '""'^'^^'^  ^''h  the  most  fatal  of  the 
Iffer  thri  H  "°'^'''t>'.-''^«  Fa«./...A/,  by  which  any  noble  could, 
on  another  Ynd""  '",  I  ^°™  ^""^''  Fehdebrief,  declare  vva; 
andnTth    '   ^"'^   P^o«ed   to  invade  and  devastate  his  country 

Germanv  tUr  H  /\'''  ''^°'^-  ^'^^"  ^^  ^'^'"^'^ber  that  in 
Lrermany  the  feudal  inheritance  was  divided  among  the  children 
of  the  late  lord,  and  thus  the  land  was  constantly  split  up  into  a 

ofTuc^aliS^T'^^'^V^^"  ""''^^^^-'^  the  'consequence: 
ot  such  a  right  belonging  to  the  countless  descendents  of  the  once 

o^th  t:\n  "ht''"\  ^""^  'T^  ^^^^^  °f  'he  nobility  consisted 
frnrn     K  ^  'f'  "^^^  ^^""^  ''ttle  more  than  licensed  brigands 

man'stfrwatS:. "°  '"''"*^  ^^^  '^^^'  ^"^  '"  -^°-  ^an^ds  t 

Pelce^orfhl'' F^''''*  °^  '^95  for  the  establishment  of  the  Public 
Peace  of  the  Empire  was  especially  obnoxious,  as  it  prohibited 
private  war  under  the  penalty  of  the  ban  of  the  Empire  Even  a 
the  union'o°f'"""f  "'  this-amounting,  in  fact,  to'no  less  han 
Sd  no  ?hnl  IT  °""'^''^  r'^  'P'"t"^'  excommunication- 
severftvt  T'  '""'  l^'  "°"^'^"'  ^^^^s.      From  its  very 

sclre^mw  t^n  """^'f/f  °«^d  'o  and  it  thus  became  rather  a 
nrovolT.  .  r^'  ''^'^■■.^^"t-  The  Aulic  Council  of  Maximilian 
provoked  constant  opposition,  and  the  dissension  was  universal 

»  Vide  Bryce's  "  Holy  Roman  Empire." 


y 


\ 

I 


(1/ 


•^> 


^^ 


f  ^ 

! 

I 

I 


> 


;/ 


throughout  the  land.'     The  Free  Cities  formed   an  important 
constituent  in  the  Empire  and   still  retained  the  greater  part  of 
their  ancient  power.     In  them  could  be  seen  the  guild  system  in 
Its  highest  development,  but  their  very  independence  laid  them 
open  to  the  attacks  of  the  neighbouring  lords,  and  more  especially 
of  the  free  knights,  who  were  the  natuml  foes  of  their  commerce 
and  prosperity.  Pin  striking  contrast  to  the  freedom  and  happiness 
ot  the  higher  class  as  a  whole  was  the   miserable  condition  of 
the  peasantry,  whose  state  was  at  this  time  more  wretched  in 
Germany  than  in  any  other  country  in  Europe.      Their  position 
was  little  better  than  that  of  slaves,  and  against  the  oppression  of 
their  lords  they  had  absolutely  no  remedy.     Hence  the  end  of  the 
Fifteenth    and    the   beginning  of  the   Sixteenth   Centuries  were 
marked  by  continual  insurrections,  of  which  the  most  important 
will  be  sketched  m  this  essay.      An  Emperor  whose  power  was 
often  merely  nominal,  princes  whose  position  was  extremely  pre- 
carious  a  barbarous  nobility,  and  a  degraded  peasantry  are  fitly 
paralleled  in  the  ecclesiastical  world  by  the  tottering  power  of  the 
I  Papacy,  an  uninfluential  Episcopacy,  and  an  ignorant  priesthood.* 
In  every  grade  of  the  system  the  state  of  things  was  the  same. 
1  he  bishops  were  great  temporal  princes  whose  connection  with 
the  Church  was,  except  as  far  as  revenue  was  concerned,  of  the 
s hghtest.      The  abuses  of  the  Middle  Ages  clung  around  their 
elec  ion.     They  were  appointed  by  the  favour  of  the  Emperor  or 
the  lesser  sovereigns,  in  several  cases  by  actual  purchase  of  the 
sees    sometimes  when  mere  children.      That  they  were  totally 
unlit   lor  their  office  m   most  cases  is  at  once  evident:   equally 
certain  is  it  that  they  took  little  interest  in  and  paid  little  atten- 
t{,?R  K,  *','''•      The  secular  clergy  were  grossly  ignorant : 

the  Bible  was  unknown  :  scholasticism  in  its  narrowest  forms  had 
taken  the  place  of  theological  learning.  The  Friars,  once  the 
source  whence  the  Church  attained  new  life,  had  lost  their  in- 
fluence with  their  earnestness  and  practical  piety.  They  were 
the  butts  of  the  people  :  the  common  books  ridiculed  and  the 
tavern  pictures  caricatured  them.''  Widespread,  almost  universal, 
was  the  corruption.  Yet  beneath  stood  the  foundation,  from 
which  the  moss  that  had  grown  over  the  holy  stones  was  to  be 
scraped,  some  broken  pieces  were  to  be  cemented,  some  crazy 
corners  pointed  with  wholesome  mortar  instead  of  base  clay  with 
which  they  were  disgracefully  patched  up.«     The  means  for  the 

»  Kohlrausch,  Hist.  Germ.  ch.  xv. 

ther7wasTrff  ^^Z'  ^^^°'l'^^  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  heresies  were  published, 
r^^Ir^T      "°',^"y  seventy  m  ecclesiastical  judicatories,  any  discipline  with 

o;:"\ol''Tc7lZt.  -l-'f--- "-ning...-BelIarmine.  Concio.  /s. 

^  Erasmus,  Colloq.  *'  Franciscani." 
«  Bp.  Hall,  Contempl.  B.  xx.  12. 

B   2 


ii 

i 


^ 


change   were   not   far   to    seek.      Communication    between   the 
different  countries  was  much  more  easy  than  we  are  accustomed 
to    imagine.      Pilgrimages    promoted  travelHng  to  a  very  great 
extent,'  and  to  and  from  Rome,  the  heart  of  the  spiritual  body, 
the  tide  of  the  devotees  was  constantly  flowing.     By  such  means 
the  revival  of  learning  which  had  begun  in  Italy  was  bemg  con- 
veyed to  other  lands.     But  the  light  that  was  beginnmg  to  stream 
upon  the  world  from  the  Italian  Renaissance  was  not  reflected  m 
the  German  Church.     There  the  clergy  committed  the  fatal  error 
of  opposing  the  New  Learning  instead  of  welcoming  it  as  a  most 
valuable  ally.     The  history  of  Reuchlin  is  but  one  of  the  many 
examples  of  this  very  short-sighted  policy.     Too  ignorant  to  see 
how  irresistible  this  new  influence  was  they  had  no  weapons  with 
which  to  contend  against  it  but  those  of  trickery  and  superstition.^ 
The    same   vices   that   were   to   be   seen    in   the    political    were 
prominent  in  the  ecclesiastical  system.     Had  the  Church  been 
less  corrupt,  the  revolution  would  have  been  far  more  glorious, 
the  reformation  a  bloodless  one.      As  it  was  the  convulsion  was 
inevitable,  and  it  remained  to  be  seen  whether  a  political  or  a 
religious  change  would  be  the  first  proclamation  of  the  new  order 
of  things.      As  it  happened  the  gaunlet  was  first  flung  down  by 
an  obscure  Augustine  Friar,  famous  to  all  time  as  Martin  Luther. 
The  agitation  in  the  ecclesiastical  world  which  followed  the  bold 
challenge  of  the  Wittenberg  doctor  was  not  without  its  parallel 
in  political  action,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  oppor- 
tunity might  have  been  used   by  Maximilian  to  consolidate  his 
power  at  the  expense  of  the  Papacy  had  he  not  been  occupied  at 
that    time    in    securing   the    succession    of  his  grandson   to   the 
Empire.^      In  this  object  he  had   not  met  with    any   apparent 
success^^  but  his  efforts  were  proved  on  his  death   not  to   have 
been  unavailing,   and    when   the    time    came    Charles    of   Spain 
succeeded  to  an  Empire  in  which  everything  was  confusion- 
class  fighting  against  class,  without  military  or  financial  organisa- 
tion, with  no  supreme  Court  of  Justice,   and  no   Public   Peace. 
Many  fruitless  speculations  are  suggested  by  the  thought  of  how 
different  might  have  been  the  course  of  events  had  Saxony  at  this 
time  assumed  the  position  for  which  she  seemed  naturally  in- 
tended,   and    Frederic   the   Wise    Elector   become    Frederic    the 

7  For  instance,  we  find  that  Henry  VI.  granted  licenses  for  the  exportation  of 
2433  pilgrims  in  one  year  to  the  shrine  of  Saint  James  of  Compostella.     The- 

Wife  of  Bath  too  : — 

"  And  thries  hadde  sche  ben  at  Jerusalem  ; 
Sche  hadde  passed  many  a  straunge  streem  ; 
At  Rome  sche  hadde  ben,  and  at  Boloyne, 
In  Galice,  at  seynt  Jame,  and  at  Coloyne." 

8  fr  P-   the  Berne  imposture.  (Ruchat,  Histoire   de  la  Reformation  en  Suisse, 
vol  VI. :  Hottingen,  Hist.  Eccl.  Helvet,  tom.  i.  p.  330.     Burnet's  Travels). 

9  Ranke,  Hist.  Reform,  in  Germany,  book  ii.  ch.  2. 

10  Guicciardini  lib.  13,  p.  15  :  Histoire  Gen.  d'Allemagne  par  P.  Barre  tom.  viii. 

p.  1081. 


.! 


1 


Fourth  of  Germany.  The  progress  of  the  Reformation  under 
Austrian  rule  was  very  different  to  what  it  would  have  been  under 
Saxon  Emperors.  But  we  are  concerned  with  actual  facts,  and 
the  policy  of  the  new  Emperor  next  claims  our  attention.  By 
him  the  Reformation  was  viewed  at  first  in  a  political  light,  and 
the  changes  which  he  contemplated  4n  the  constitution  of  the 
Empire  were  of  a  different  nature  to  those  which  appeared  to  be 
the  aim  of  the  Reformers.  The  crushing  of  the  nobility  was  an 
object  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  strength  of  the  Imperial 
Power,  and  the  new  religious  party  had  unfortunately  connected 
itself  with  some  of  the  worst  remnants  of  a  past  age," — the 
attempts  of  the  nobility  to  win  back  their  old  rights.  Thus 
Charles  was  necessarily  the  enemy  of  their  political  connections, 
while  his  own  position  made  him  a  firm  ally  of  the  Pope  in  the 
ecclesiastical  war.  Vain  were  the  appeals  of  Seckingen  and 
Hutten  :  the  Emperor  whom  they  expected  to  revive  the  glories 
of  past  times  did  not  understand  the  dreams  of  the  warrior  and 
the  poet.  By  the  close  of  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  the  famous 
Edict,  which  marked  the  result  of  the  meeting,  the  temporal 
power  was  clearly  declared  to  take  its  stand  by  the  side  of  the 
Papacy  against  all  the  principles  for  which  men  rallied  to  the 
name  of  Luther.  Well' might  Hutten  repeat  his  motto— "  Alea 
jacta  est  " — for  all  hope  of  reconciliation  was  over  when  the 
political  forces  joined  the  theological  combatants. 

11  Chauffour-Kestner  "  Etudes  sur  les  Reformateurs  du  i6me  Siecle." 


\ 


I 


I. 


1^2  \ 


^'^^  Z 


The  Edict  of  Worms  marks  an  important  point  in  the  history 
of  the  Reformation.  From  this  time  the  Lutheran  party  may  be 
said  to  date  its  existence.  All  hope  of  an  internal  Reformation, 
effected  by  the  Church  herself,  now  appeared  to  be  vain.  It 
remained  therefore  to  see  what  external  bodies,  if  organised,  could 
do  by  their  action  upon  the  political  and  religious  government  of 
the  time.  And  now,  at  the  outset  of  his  career,  the  cause  of 
Luther  was  exposed  to  great  danger.  Without  some  political  aid 
the  struggle  seemed  hopeless,  but  the  whole  prospects  of  the 
movement  might  be  ruined  by  an  alliance  with  the  effete  relics 
of  a  past  age,  or  the  equally  anarchic  outbreak  of  fanatic  ardour. 
Had  the  Reformers  joined  the  party  of  Franz  von  Seckingen  in 
1523  the  future  of  their  cause  would  hardly  have  been  more  bright 
than  if  it  had  been  connected  with  the  wild  rebellion  of  the 
oppressed  peasants  in  1525.  At  first,  however,  an  alliance  between 
the  new  religious  impulse  and  the  remains  of  feudal  disorder 
seemed  not  improbable.^^ 

At  the  Diet  of  Worms  a  Council  of  Regency  had  been  appointed 
to  represent  the  Emperor  during  his  absence  in  the  Netherlands 
and  in  Spain.  On  his  accession  Charles  had  promised  to 
establish  a  Council  which  was  to  revive  the  form  of  representative 
government  which  had  been  suggested  in  the  past,^^  a  scheme  for 
which,  based  on  the  Regency  Ordinance  of  1500,  was  presented 
for  his  sanction.  This,  however,  did  not  meet  with  his  approval. 
He  considered  it  derogatory  to  his  dignity  and  full  of  danger  to 
his  authority,  and  in  return  placed  before  the  Diet  a  scheme  in 
which  his  own  interests  were  far  more  fully  represented.  He 
wished  to  rule  as  Roman  Emperor — the  princes  were  now 
determined  that  he  should  be  a  German  King.  After  much  dis- 
cussion, in  which  the  States  were  not  inclined  to  yield  anything  of 
importance,  a  compromise  was  agreed  upon  by  which  the  Em- 
peror maintained  his  authority  and  the  States  obtained  a  part  in 
the  National  Government  for  which  they  had  been  striving  for 
some  time.^*  The  Council  was  composed  of  a  lieutenant  of  the 
Kaiser  as  President,  representatives  of  the  Electors,  of  the  Six 
Circles  into  which  the  German  Empire  was  divided,  and  of  the 

12  Arch.  Young's  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  p.  140. 

13  In  1487,  in  1495  and  in  1500. 

1^  Ranke,  book  ii.  ch.  4. 


\ 


\ 


i 


7 

States  in  rotation.    Other  political  changes  were  introduced  at  this 
Diet  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter,  but  the  whole  of  the 
alterations  are  striking  proofs  of  the  spirit  which  was  awakening  in 
secular  as  well  as  in  religious  affairs.    For  the  moment  the  impulse 
which  had  burst  out  all  over  th#  land  for  the  Reformation  of  the 
Church  and   for  the  redress  of  ecclesiastical  grievances  and  the 
abolition    of  ecclesiastical   scandals   seemed,  in    the   mysterious 
absence — none  knew  where — of  Luther,  to  lack  a  guide.      But 
the   spirit  of  Freedom   showed    itself  at   this  time  in  the  estab- 
lishment   of    the    new   representative    system    which,    it   might 
be  hoped,   would  prove  the  basis  of  a  firm   and   united   govern- 
ment.    The  new  Council   contained  a  majority  of  men  inclined 
to    regard    some    enquiry    into    the    questions    raised    by    the 
Reformers    as  necessary.    Some  of  its  members  were  favourers 
of  the    Lutheran    opinions.      One    of  the  most   prominent   was 
Frederic,    Elector    of    Saxony,    who    had    always    extended    his 
protection  to  Luther.     This  prince  had  many  of  the  elements  of  a 
really  great  man.     He  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  history 
and  necessities  of  the  Empire  :  he  was  sagacious  and  diligent. 
He  was  a  just  and  tolerant  as  well  as  a  prudent  and  farseeing 
ruler.     At  one  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  would  be  the  successor  of 
Maximilian,  and  he  could  have  been  so  had  he  not  preferred  the 
safe  position  of  Duke  of  Saxony  to  the  precarious  glories  of  the 
imperial  throne.     He  saw  that  he  should  have  neither  the  power 
nor  the  revenue  to  maintain  himself  as  Emperor,  and  his  natural 
prudence  confirmed  his  resolution.       He  had  now  become  a  firm 
supporter  of  Charles  V.,  and   his  counsel  was  always  acknow- 
ledged of  extreme  value  to  the  interests  of  the  State.      Thus,  far 
from  intending  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  Edict  of  Worms, 
the  Council  of  Regency  seemed  rather  to  aim  at  a  further  dis- 
cussion of  the  matter.      However,  we  are  concerned  rather  with 
its  political  action,   by  which  it  unluckily  contrived  to  become 
unpopular  with  almost  every  class.     The  new  financial   system 
which  it  desired  to  establish  was  extremely  obnoxious  to  the  great 
cities.  The  whole  commercial  body,  in  fact,  considered  the  customs 
which    it   was    proposed    to    exact   to  be   suggested  by  especial 
hostility  to  its  interests,  and  opposed  the  measures  of  the  Council 
with  all  its  power.     The  princes,  again,  in  many  cases  showed  no 
cordial    feeling   towards  it.       But   its  chief  opponents  were  the 
knights  and  nobles  whose  depredations  it  was  determined  to  put 
down,  rightly  seeing  that  as  long  as  such  a  system  of  wholesale 
robbery  was  suffered  to  exist  the  country  could  not  possibly  be- 
come prosperous. 

Romance  has  invested  those  feudal  lords  with  many  fas- 
cinating attributes  which  sober  history  is  obliged  to  deny  them. 
Everyone  knows  Gothe's  idealisation  of  Gotz  von  Berlichingen, 
who  will  soon  enter  upon  the  scene  of  our  study.  Poets  with 
less  power  than  the  great    German,   novelists   whose   ideas    of 


> 


-V 


8 

history  are  as  fanciful  as  the   language  in  which  they   express 
them,  have  described  to  us  the  existence  of  a  Ritter.    Hospitable, 
generous,  brave,  he  lived  a  glorious  life  of  adventure  and  gallan- 
try,  ever   ready   to   relieve   the   oppressed   and    to   punish    the 
oppressor.     His  halls  shone  with  the  splendour  of  their  adorn- 
ment.    Pages  of  noble  birth  learned  of  him  the  lessons  of  honour 
and  emulated  his  heroism.     The  poor  found  ready  shelter  under 
his  roof,  and  women  met  with  a  true  and  refined  courtesy  at  his 
hands.     Far   different   in    most   cases    was   the   reality.     These 
petty  lords  had  no  means  of  subsistence  but  their  exactions  from 
the  miserable  peasantry,  except — what  indeed  was  their  constant 
resource — the  plunder  they  won  by   their   swords.      Merchants 
proceeding  from  town  to  town  were  not  safe  on  the  road.     From 
the  greater  knights  even  cities  were  in  danger.     There  was  no 
chance  of  security  against  these  men  but  by  paying  a  kind  of 
blackmail  to  one  robber  to   defend   them   from  the   attacks   of 
another.     Nor  were  their  principles  so  high  as  they  have  been 
represented,  nor  the  conduct  of  their  depredations  so  chivalrous. 
On  the  contrary,  weakness  was  no  protection,  resistance  was  met 
by  murder.     Though  such  was  the   natural  result  of  the  feudal 
anarchy  which  existed  in  the  order,  examples,  no  doubt,  may  be 
found  of  knights  who  were  quite  free  from  any  imputation  of  the 
grossest   crimes.     Of   these   no   better   representative   could   be 
discovered  than   Franz  von  Seckingen.     He  was  of  an  ancient 
family,  which  had  in  the  time  of  his  father  become  important  and 
prosperous  by  the   successful  feuds  he  had   engaged   in.     The 
signs  in  the  stars  that  during  these  ages  were  wont  to  accom- 
pany the  birth  of  great  men  were  not  wanting  in  1481,  when 
Franz  was  born,^^  and  seem  to  have  foretold  his  future  with  their 
customary  precision.     His  father's  death  on  the  scaffold  when  he 
was  still  a  boy  left  him  to  work  his  way  alone.     He  carried  on  a 
series  of  attacks  upon  the  neighbouring  lords  and  cities  for  the 
sake  of  men  who  appealed  to  him  for  aid  against  injustice  as  well 
as   '  for  his  own  hand,'  and  was  not  to  be  bought  off  from  his 
prey  but  by  large  ransoms.     Success  was  constantly  with  him. 
He  was   active,  brave,  energetic,  and  by  the  time  when  Maxi- 
milian's death  caused  a  contest  for  the  Empire  between  Charles 
of  Spain  and  Francis  of  France  he  was  of  sufficient  importance 
in  the  state  to  be  eagerly  sought  as  an  ally  by  both  candidates. 
He    had    previously  been    recommended    to   the    service   of  the 
French  king,  but  his  haughty  spirit  had  detected  a  want  of  confi- 
dence on  the  part  of  Francis  which  offended  his  pride.^*^     Leo  X. 
was  an  active  opponent  of  Charles — a  circumstance  sufficient  to 
make  Seckingen  one  of  his  partizans,  as  he  saw  no  hope  for  the 
future  of  Germany  in   dependence   on    Rome.      Many   reasons 

1^  Flersheimer  Chronik,  Miinch's  "  Franz  von  Seckingen." 
i'^  Pardee's  Life  of  Francis  I.,  vol.  i.  p.  319. 


\ 


1 


I 


t 


i 


*<S^ 


-I 


combined  to  make  him  a  staunch  supporter  of  the  successful 
candidate  and  he  became  for  some  time  a  favourite  with  the  new 
Emperor,  who  was  not  strong  enough  at  present  to  put  down  the 
class  of  which  he  was  so  powerful  a  representative.^^  Not  long 
before  Charles's  coronation  Seckingen  became  acquainted  with  a 
man  who  like  himself  had  the  feelings  of  the  ancient  knighthood 
and  the  bold  and  reckless  daring  of  a  free  Ritter,  but  who  was 
also  a  man  of  wide  culture  and  learning,  and  one  of  the  truest 
humourists  and  keenest  satirist  of  the  age — Ulrich  von  Hutten. 
Few  of  the  many  remarkable  men  who  pass  across  the  scene  in 
this  eventful  period  so  deeply  enchain  our  interest  as  the  warrior- 
poet,  the  laureate  of  Maximilian,  the  author  of  '  Trias  Romana ' 
and  *  Epistolae  obscurum  virorum.'  It  has  been  well  remarked^® 
that  he  united  in  a  striking  manner  the  characteristic  features, 
the  growth  of  that  period  of  excitement,  which  we  see  seperately 
in  the  other  heroes  of  the  time.  Like  Seckingen  he  was  a 
knight,  like  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus  a  scholar  and  humourist,  like 
Luther  a  reformer.  His  books  were  in  the  hands  of  everyone, 
and  the  vigorous  logic  and  trenchant  satire  of  his  '  appeals,' 
*  invectives,'  and  'dialogues'  aroused  many  whom  the  theological 
arguments  of  Luther  and  Melancthon  failed  to  move.^^  Hutten 
before  this  time  had  become  an  ardent  partisan  of  Luther  and 
begun  to  throw  all  the  energy  which  he  had  formerly  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  learning  in  her  contest  with  ignorance  and  scholas- 
ticism into  the  fiercer  struggle  of  the  Reformers.  The  friendship 
between  him  and  Seckingen  was  confirmed  by  their  agreement 
on  theological  questions,  and  Hutten  obtained  a  refuge  for  many 
a  persecuted  ecclesiastic  in  the  castles  of  the  hospitable  knight  of 
Ebernburg.  There  came  Caspar  Aquila,  Bucer,  CEcolampadius: 
Reuchlin  and  Luther  were  offered  the  shelter  of  its  walls.  Here 
too  the  new  service  of  the  Reformers  was  first  regularly  cele- 
brated :  here  CEcolampadius  put  forth  his  letter  against  "  the 
unintelligible  mutterings  of  the  Mass,"^  and  Seckingen  himself 
published  a  defence  of  the  administration  of  the  Eucharist  in 
both  kinds,  of  the  reading  of  the  service  in  German  and  of  the 
liberty  of  monks  to  repudiate  their  vows.^^  In  Seckingen  the 
desire  of  religious  reformation  was  not  joined  to  any  anxiety  for 
political  freedom.     On  the  contrary,  he  endeavoured  to  unite  the 

17  The  MS.  history  of  a  contemporary  describes  Seckingen  at  this  time  as 
•'  elegans  et  sociabilis  conversatione  .  .  .  generosus  etiam  et  honestus,  lepidus 
idem  et  facetus,  et  nemo  neque  nobilis  in  Germania  neque  princeps  neque  vir 
militaris  esset,  qui  ipsi  non  gratificaretur."  (quoted  by  Seckendorf  Com.  Luth., 
jib.  i.,  p.  269.) 

1®  A.  Young — Preface  to  "  Ulrich  von  Hutten." 

1^  Strauss,  "  Ulrich  von  Hutten  His  Life  and  Times."  Sir  James  Stephen, 
"  Essays  in  Ecclesiastical  Biography." 

20  Gerdesius,  Historia  Evangelii,  torn,  i.,  monumenta  p.  166. 

21  Seckendorf,  Comment,  de  Lutheranismo,  lib.  i.,  269. 


< 


/ 


10 

free  knights  with  the  reformers  and  to  restore  the  privileges  of 
which  the  former  had  been  deprived,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
sought  for  complete  reformation  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church.  It 
was  now  determined  that  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  gain  the 
alliance  of  the  cities  and  nobles  in  a  general  rising  against  the 
new  measures  of  the  Imperial  Chamber.  Hutten's  pen  again 
came  into  requisition.  He  followed  up  addresses  to  the  cities  by 
a  vigorous  poem  in  German^^  which  was  intended  to  unite  the 
two  natural  foes,  the  knights  and  the  merchants,  against  the 
princes.  Such  an  alliance,  it  might  easily  have  been  seen,  was 
impracticable.  Nor  were  the  efforts  of  Seckingen  to  induce 
Luther  to  countenance  his  rising  successful.  The  religious 
principles  of  the  reformer  made  him  consider  the  project  un- 
justifiable and  his  political  ability  taught  him  that  the  moment 
chosen  for  its  execution  was  ill-timed.  '*The  Word  has  con- 
quered the  world  and  shall  save  it"  he  exclaimed,  and  he 
earnestly  dissuaded  Seckingen  from  the  attempt.  Hutten,  how- 
ever, entered  heart  and  soul  into  the  design.  In  it  he  saw  the 
dream  of  his  life.  Thoroughly  popular  though  he  had  become 
in  thought  he  was  never  able  to  rid  himself  of  the  class  prejudice 
in  which  he  had  been  educated,  and  he  could  see  nothing  but 
tyranny  in  the  attempts  of  the  princes  to  maintain  order  by  the 
suppression  of  the  abuses  of  the  knighthood.  Finding  it  useless 
to  look  for  external  assistance  Seckingen  determined  to  trust 
entirely  to  the  Rhenish  nobles,  of  whom  accordingly  he  sum- 
moned a  Convention  at  Landau,  which  met  in  August,  1522. 
An  agreement  was  then  signed  by  which  the  knights  pledged 
themselves  to  support  each  other  in  resistance  to  all  but  feudal 
jurisdiction.23  Seckingen  became  their  captain  and  added  many 
troops  to  those  which  as  an  Imperial  general  and  as  if  for  the 
war  with  France  he  had  already  gathered  together.  Having  thus 
secured  such  aid  as  he  could,  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
600  horse  and  8,000  foot,^*  he  declared  war  against  the  Arch- 
bishop-Elector of  Treves,  "  for  those  things"  he  said  "wherein 
he  had  acted  against  God  and  the  Emperor's  Majesty."^^  In 
order  to  secure  the  assistance  of  all  the  favourers  of  the  new 
doctrines  he  put  forth  a  manifesto,  written  by  Hutten,  in  which 
lie  promised  to  deliver  the  people  "from  the  heavy  anti-Christian 
yoke  of  the  priesthood  and  lead  them  to  evangelical  freedom. "^6 
The  choice  of  the  Archbishop  for  attack  was  made  for  the  reason 
that,  as  a  religious  as  well  as  a  secular  prince,  he  seemed  to  unite  in 

22  "  Beklagunge  der  Freistette  Teutschen  Nation." 

23  Miinch's  Franz  von  Seckingen. 

24  Seckendorf.   But  the  Flersheimer  Chronik  gives  the  numbers  as  1,500  horse 
and  6,000  foot,  vide  Miinch,  iii.,  215. 

2s  Ranke,  book  iii.,  ch.  4. 

26  Meiner's  Life  of  Hutten,  p.  317. 


r    I  \ 


II 

himself  the  opposition  of  the  Church  to  the  Reformation  and  of 
the  princes  to  the  privileges  of  the  knights.  Of  course,  no 
sooner  were  the  intentions  of  Seckingen  known  than  a  proclama- 
tion was  issued  against  him  by  the  Imperial  Chamber.  To  this 
he  paid  no  heed,  but  published  an  address  to  his  troops  in  which 
he  explained  his  object  to  be  the  Reformation  of  the  Church  and 
not  his  own  honour  or  glory.  He  professed  himself  still  the 
Emperor's  faithful  servant  and  even  tried  to  insinuate  that  his 
actions  were  in  reality  more  beneficial  to  his  Majesty's  power 
than  those  of  his  Councillors.^'  Such  attempts  to  disguise  his 
real  purpose  probably  deceived  no  one.  That  his  ambition 
prompted  him  to  expect  a  principality  or  even  an  electorate  as 
the  fruits  of  his  victory  we  may  safely  assume  2®  His  expecta- 
tions, however,  were  disappointed.  His  success  was  only 
temporary :  his  allies  were  either  prevented  from  coming  to  his 
aid  or  defeated  :  the  neighbouring  princes  gave  their  assistance 
to  the  Archbishop  :  and  he  was  compelled  to  retire  from  Treves 
after  a  week's  siege.  In  so  bold  a  venture  the  result  could  only 
be  victory  or  ruin  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  Seckingen  found 
that  he  had  raised  a  tumult  he  had  no  power  to  still.  For  a  time 
the  attack  upon  him  was  deferred,  in  the  first  instance  by  the 
vengeance  which  the  Archbishop  and  his  allies,  the  Elector 
Palatine  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hessen,  proceeded  to  take  on  all 
who  had  assisted  the  knights  and  secondly  by  the  interference  of 
the  Council  of  Regency,  which  we  now  see,  anomalous  as  it  may 
appear,  almost  in  alliance  with  Seckingen.^^  The  confederation 
of  princes  known  as  the  Swabian  league  seemed  inclined  to  take 
the  matter  into  its  own  hands,  and  by  some  arbitrary  proposals 
for  the  extinction  of  the  knighthood  came  into  opposition  to  the 
Council  and  threatened  the  interests  of  order.  The  Council  now 
felt  the  need  of  power  to  enforce  its  mandates.  The  Princes 
turned  their  full  strength  against  Seckingen  and  he  had  to  fight 
the  battle  against  them  unaided.  In  the  spring  of  1523,  when 
Seckingen  was  at  his  castle  of  Landstuhl,  the  three  princes 
marched  upon  him  and,  having  completed  the  environment  on  the 
30th  of  April,  began  to  bombard  the  fortress.  Every  shot  told  on 
the  ancient  walls,  which  were  quite  unable  to  withstand  artillery ;  ^ 
and  on  the  7th  of  May  defence  was  no  longer  possible.  That 
day  Seckingen  had  received  a  mortal  wound,  and  it  was  with  fast 
ebbing  strength  that  he  signed  the  capitulation.  He  had  been 
carried  into  a  dungeon,  the  only  place  where  he  could  be  safe 
from  the  cannonade.  Thence  he  sent  to  ask  an  interview  with 
the   princes.     The  Archbishop,  the  Elector,  and  the   Landgrave 

27  Strauss,  Life  of  Hutten,  p.  310. 
28  Ibid,  p.  311,  see  Gothe  "  Gotz  von  Berlichingen,"  Act  iv.  Sc.  3. 

29  Ranke,  book  iii.,  ch.  4. 
30  Spalatin,  Sammlung  zu  Sachs.  Gesch.  v.  148. 


>  (-< 


12 

entered  the  room,  and  all  their  anger  seemed  forgotten  in  the 
presence  of  the  dying  man.  *'  I  go  now  to  render  my  account 
before  a  greater  judge  "  he  rephed  to  the  young  PhiHp  of  Hessen. 
His  strength  was  now  gone.  His  chaplain  elevated  the  Host 
while  his  enemies  knelt  and  repeated  a  Paternoster  as  the  spirit 
of  Seckingen  passed  quietly  away.  The  death  of  Hutten  took 
place  a  few  months  afterwards.  He  had  left  Ebernburg  about 
the  time  of  the  attack  on  Treves,  perhaps  with  the  intention  of 
seeking  the  assistance  that  Seckingen  expected  from  the  Swiss. 
Not  long  after  the  death  of  his  friend  he  heard  the  sad  news  at 
Zurich.  It  came  at  a  time  when  he  was  already  overwhelmed 
with  misfortune.  A  terrible  disease,  from  which  he  had  suffered 
all  his  life,  had  now  come  upon  him  with  renewed  force  after  a 
period  of  absence.  His  last  hours  were  embittered  by  a  contro- 
versy with  Erasmus  into  which  he  entered  with  all  his  old  fire. 
On  the  ist  of  September,  1524,  he  ended  his  restless  life.  With 
his  death  all  hope  of  the  restoration  of  the  Ritters  to  anything  of 
their  ancient  power  passed  away.  By  the  end  of  the  year  they 
were  utterly  crushed  and  ceased  to  have  an  appreciable  influence 
in  the  Empire.  Seckmgen's  attack  on  Treves  was  the  last 
instance  of  the  exercise  of  Faustrecht,  which  the  less  powerful 
knights  made  no  attempt  to  revive  after  his  death.  Their  fall 
was  inevitable  :  only  for  a  moment  had  it  been  doubtful — when  it 
seemed  that  an  alliance  with  the  new  spirit  that  inspired  the 
nation  might  lend  them  vitality  for  a  time.  But  with  them  fell 
also  the  power  of  the  Council  of  Regency,  the  hope  of  creating 
an  united  Germany.  Since  the  nobility  had  failed  in  their 
attempt  at  reformation,  the  task  remained  for  others. 


I 


\ 


II 


n. 


■1525- 

Hardly  had  the  power  of  the  Knights  been  broken  by  the 
death  of  Franz  von  Seckingen  when  the  tranquillity  of  the 
Empire  was  again  disturbed  and  the  very  existence  of  authority 
threatened  by  the  outbreak  of  one  of  those  terrible  rebellions  by 
which,  from  time  to  time  in  the  history  of  Europe,  the  oppresed 
children  of  the  soil  have  striven  to  shake  off  the  cruel  and 
tyrannical  rule  by  which  they  have  been  bound.  fUs  long  as  a 
class  exists  in  any  country  which  is  ground  down  to  a  state  of 
servitude  and  kept  in  ignorant  and  brutal  subjection  to  the  classes 
above  it,  there  lies  beneath  the  surface  of  the  outward  tranquillity 
of  that  state  a  force  which  at  times  arises  as  with  superhuman 
strength  to  exact  a  terrible  vengeance  for  its  wrongs  and  its 
misery.  The  history  of  Europe  is  full  of  these  records  of  horror. 
Though  in  the  ages  when  feudalism  was  the  guiding  principle  of 


13 

political  life  these  insurrections  were  especially  frequent  and 
fierce,  no  era  has  been  wholly  without  them  :  in  later  times, 
however,  they  have  been,  no  doubt,  less  the  terrible  cry  of  the 
oppressed  than  the  turbulent  outburst  of  a  democratic  and 
socialistic  spirit.  The  Peasants'  War  in  Normandy  in  997  :  the 
terrible  days  of  the  Jacquerie  :  the  atrocities  of  Wat  Tyler  and  of 
Jack  Cade : — these  are  but  a  few  of  the  parallels  to  the  Bauern- 
krieg  of  1525.  At  this  time  a  peasant  was  perhaps  more  down- 
trodden in  Germany  than  in  any  other  country.  His  condition 
has  already  been  mentioned.  fTt  was  little  removed  from  actual 
slavery,  and  this  not  so  much  by  the  compulsory  labour  or  by 
any  absolute  rights  of  his  lord  as  by  the  impossibility  of  his 
rising  to  be  anything  but  what  he  was  born — the  impossibility  of 
prosperity  or  independence  caused  in  a  great  measure  by  the 
oppressive  dues  to  which  he  was  always  liable.  There  was  the 
right  of  Tod/all,  by  which  the  lord  on  the  death  of  the  father  of 
the  family  had  his  best  pair  of  oxen,  on  the  death  of  the  mother 
her  best  gown  :  the  Lehnschelling,  the  fine  paid  by  any  peasant 
who  changed  masters  to  the  one  he  left.  All  his  best  produce — 
his  finest  wheat,  fruit  and  honey — had  to  be  given  to  his  lord,  to 
whom  he  was  also  bound  to  take  a  pig  on  Shrove  Tuesday,  a 
couple  of  chickens  on  Saint  Martin's  day,  and  a  couple  of  geese 
at  Michaelmas. ^^  The  exactions  of  the  clergy  were  hardly  less 
oppressive.  Tithes  on  everything  the  peasant  possessed  went  to 
the  priest  and  no  religious  rite  could  be  had  without  paying 
for  it.^^  Under  such  tyranny,  feudal  and  ecclesiastical,  no  people 
could  remain  without  frequent  endeavours  to  obtain  freedom. 
But  it  is  the  result  of  the  ignorance  and  brutality  to  which  such 
tyranny  reduces  men  that  their  efforts  to  shake  it  off  are  marred 
by  follies  and  stained  by  crimes  which  would  render  their  triumph 
more  disastrous  to  the  cause  of  liberty  than  their  defeat.  Their 
ignorance  makes  them  the  dupes  of  fanatics  and  impostors  who 
degrade  their  efforts  by  associating  them  with  some  ridiculous  or 
puerile  object :  their  brutality  disgraces  the  execution  of  their 
projects  by  atrocities  which  unite  against  them,  for  their  very 
preservation,  all  the  supporters  of  Law  and  Order. 

The  preaching  of  the  Reformation  was  not  without  effect  on 
the  peasantry.  The  weak  and  the  oppressed  will  always  hear 
with  joy  the  good  tidings  that  the  Gospel  brings,  and  fanatics 
and  charlatans  will  always  arise  to  pervert  its  lesions  and  to 
preach  not  love  and  peace  but  enmity  and  sedition.  |The  Bauern- 
krieg  of  1525  was  much  more  fierce  as  well  as  more  widespread 
than  the  scattered  insurrections  of  previous  years.  Not  since  the 
Hussite  Wars  had  the  rising  been  so  formidable.  The  various- 
rebellions  of  the  Bundschuh  were  chiefly  local  and  wanted  the 
prominence  of  religious  grievances  so  marked  in  1525.     Yet  it 

81  Audin,  "  Histoire  de  Luther." 
82  A  constant  subject  of  complaint  in  the  writings  of  the  time. 


14 

would  be  as  unjust  to  connect  the  teaching  of  Luther  with  the 
Bauern-krieg  as  it  would  be  to  attribute  the  excesses  of  the 
Tabontes  to  a  devoted  attachment  to  the  memory  of  Huss. 
The  fact  that  the  preachers  who  became  the  leaders  of  the 
msurrection  were  excessively  hostile  to  the  Church,  and  that  the 
demands  of  the  insurgents  were  largely  based  upon  religious 
abuses  gave  an  opportunity  to  the  enemies  of  the  Reformation  to 
lay  the  blame  of  the  rising  on  Luther— a  charge  from  which  he 
has  been  amply  vindicated.  In  such  a  state  of  misery  a  rebellion 
was  mevitable:  it  was  equally  inevitable  that  at  a  time  of  such 
intense  religious  excitement  the  ideas  of  the  rebels  should  be 
largely  coloured  by  religious  theories  or  veiled  by  pretence  of 
religious  earnestness.  Thus  we  shall  not  be  surprised  to  find 
that  we  may  trace  the  beginning  of  these  disturbances  to  the 
fanaticism  of  such  men  as  Carlstadt,  Pfeiffer,  Miinzer,  Storch 
and  Stubner. 

At  Zwikau  a  weaver  named  Nicholas  Storch  began  his  career 
as    a    prophet    by    choosing    twelve    apostles    and    seventy-two 
disciples.^     Driven  out  thence  they  came  to  Wittenberg  where 
they  caused  no  small  stir  during  the  absence  of  Luther.    Some  of 
them  preached  against  infant  baptism,  others  against  all  spiritual 
government.     Expelled  from  Wittenberg  when  Luther  returned, 
they   began    to   travel    over    the    country,    disseminating    their 
antinomian  opinions  and  joining  with  those  who  were  exciting- 
sedition  among  the  peasants.       Miinzer,  who  was  once  the  priest 
of  Alstadt  in  Thuringia,  first   entered  the  lists  as  a  controver- 
sialist, in  commentaries  and  pamphlets,   but,  finding  that  much 
attention  was  not  paid  to  his  arguments,  turned  his  energies  to 
Itinerant  preaching  and  began  to  put  his  theories  into  practice  by 
stirring  up  the  people  to  rebellion.     When  the  opinions  of  these 
men  began  to  obtain  notice,  Luther  wrote  several  letters'^^  against 
them  and  was  especially  earnest  in  urging  the  Electors  to  expel 
them  from  Saxony— which  only  served  to  extend  their  influence. 
Not  long  after  this  the  insurrection  broke  out.      In  November  the 
peasants  began  a  rebellion  against  the  Count  of  Lupfen : ««  about 
the  same  time  the  vassals  of  the  Abbot  of  Kempten  rose.^     In  the 
one  case  the  cause  is  said   to  have  been  the  petty  but  vexatious 
duties  that  the  Counts  of  Fiirstenburg  and  Lupfen  demanded:  in 
the   other  the   rigid   exaction    of  the    feudal    reliefs  or    Todfall. 
Before  long  all  Swabia  was  overrun  by  bands  of  peasants,  bearing 
on    their   banners    the    golden    Bundschuh  with  the   inscription 

"  Wer  frei  will  seyn 
Der  folge  diesem  Sonnenschein." 

^  Seckendorf  lib.  i.  ii8. 

8*  Works,  torn,  iii.,  Alt.  fol.  40,  41,  42,  d.  torn,  iii.,  fol.  109.  "  Sir  James 

Stephen— Essays  in  Ecclesiastical  Biography. 

^  Sleidan,  lib.  iv. 

^  Martinus  Crescius,  Anml.  Suevic,  lib.  x.  part  iii.  fol.  583.    Kohlrausch  p.  375. 


I 

r   II 


>  i 


15 

As  they  attained  some  sort  of  organisation  they  increased  in 
daring.  Miinzer  appeared  among  them  and  incited  them  to 
endurance  by  wild  and  inflammatory  addresses.^'  At  first,  how- 
ever, they  showed  remarkable  moderation  and  contented  them- 
selves with  defeating  all  the  troops  sent  against  them  by  the 
Swabian  League.  Having  surrounded  a  force  under  Truchsess 
they  granted  him  a  truce  on  the  condition  of  the  reception  of  the 
twelve  articles  which  they  presented  to  the  Council  of  Regency 
now  sitting  at  Esslingen.*^  These  articles,  which  were  drawn  up 
in  an  extremely  temperate  and  simple  manner  by  Christopher 
Schapler,  a  minister  of  Zwingle's  sect,^^  demanded  ''  that  the 
peasants  should  be  allowed  to  choose  for  themselves  the  ministers 
who  were  to  preach  to  them  the  word  of  God,  pure  and  without 
the  introduction  of  any  worldly  matter ;  that  in  future  they 
should  not  pay  any  other  tithes  but  that  of  corn  ;  that  they  had 
hitherto  been  treated  like  slaves,  although  by  the  blood  of  our 
Saviour  all  men  had  been  made  free,  and,  although  they  desired 
not  to  live  independent  of  all  superior  authority,  they  were, 
nevertheless,  resolved  no  longer  to  continue  in  this  state  of 
slavery,  unless  it  could  be  proved  to  them  by  the  Holy  Scriptures 
that  they  were  in  error.  That  finally,  they  had  to  complain  of 
many  things,  but  that  they  would  observe  silence  in  the  hope 
that  what  they  claimed  would  be  yielded  and  that  their  lords 
would  treat  them  in  accordance  with  the  counsel  and  precepts  of 
the  Gospel,  and  whilst  they  moderated  the  oppression  they  had 
exercised  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the  present  moment, 
they,  their  lords,  should  likewise  abstain  from  adding  thereto 
daily  fresh  burdens."'*^  Moderate  as  these  demands  were, 
simple  and  unpretending  as  the  expression  of  them,  it 
will  be  easily  seen  that  they  were  not  acceptable  to  the 
clergy  or  nobility,  whether  Catholic  or  Lutheran.  To  give  the 
peasants  the  choice  of  their  own  religious  instructors  would  have 
meant  a  still  larger  increase  in  the  followers  of  Miinzer  and  the 
Anabaptists.  Nor  were  the  nobility  more  ready  to  surrender  their 
feudal  dues  than  the  clergy  any  portion  of  their  tithes.  The 
Swabian  League  replied  by  an  offer  to  treat  with  the  insurgents  if 
they  would  restore  all  the  places  they  had  taken,  return  to  their 
lords,  and  dissolve  the  solemn  brotherhoods  which  they  had  estab- 
lished.'^^ To  such  conditions  it  was  impossible  for  the  peasants  to 
consent :  they  were  demanding  their  rights,  not  entreating  in- 
dulgence.    The  result  of  the  rejection  of  the  Articles  might  have 

87  Ranke,  book  iii.  ch.  6. 

^  Sleidan  Comment,  de  Statu  Relig.  et  ReipuhliccB  Car.  V.  Cces.  lib.  iv. 

8^  Sleidan  lib.  vi.  part  128  :  Achilles  Grassarus  Annul.  August. 

*o  Verbatim  from  Kohlrausch  p.  375. 

*^  These  confraternities  met  in  gardens  and  fields,  whence  they  had  received 
the  name  of  "  Garten-briider."  Seckendorf  lib.  i.  p.  304. 


i6 

been  foreseen.  The  moderate  men  who  had  hitherto  ruled  the 
peasants  had  to  give  way,  and  their  places  were  taken  by  fanatics 
and  incendiaries,  such  as  Miiller,  Metzler,  Hipler,  and  '  Httle 
Hans  '  Rohrbach.  Luther  meanwhile  wrote  letters  to  them,  and 
to  the  nobles,  exhorting  the  latter  to  be  moderate  and  temperate 
in  their  treatment  of  their  vassals,  but  overwhelming  the  former 
with  reproaches.^  There  was  no  Hutten  alive  to  raise  his  voice 
for  the  misguided  wretches  :  the  warrior-poet  would  not  have 
looked  so  coldly  and  harshly  on  their  struggles  as  did  the  great 
Reformer.  "  Better,"  said  Luther  "  that  all  the  peasants  should 
perish,  than  that  the  princes  and  the  magistrates  should 
suffer  any  injury  :  for  the  peasants  have  taken  up  the  sword 
against  the  will  of  God."  But  his  letters  were  disregarded. 
Nor  were  the  journeys  that  he  now  undertook,  endeavouring 
to  compose  the  sedition,  any  more  successful.  Some  of 
the  cities  even  entered  into  alliances  with  the  peasants,  and 
the  insurrection  continued  to  spread,  and  began  to  be  marked 
by  crimes  from  which  it  had  hitherto  been  free.  They  overran 
and  devastated  Swabia,  Wiirtenburg,  Franconia,  to  the  Rhine 
and  Alsace,^  storming  and  burning  the  castles,  and  slaying  the 
lords.*^  At  Weinsberg  they  besieged  and  took  the  castle,  and 
barbarously  murdered  the  Count,  Ludwig  von  Helfenstein,  and 
all  the  men  of  noble  birth  within  the  walls,  who,  in  spite  of  the 
entreaties  of  the  Countess,  a  natural  daughter  of  Maximilian,  were 
driven  in  her  very  presence  upon  the  pikes  of  their  vassals. 
Luther  now  wrote  another  letter  to  the  princes,  calling  upon  them 
to  unite  at  once  and  ruthlessly  put  down  these  terrible  atrocities. 
Meanwhile  the  peasants  daily  increased  in  strength.  Their 
leaders  were  not  all  of  their  own  class  :  Florian  Geier,  a  knight 
of  French  blood,  was  one  of  their  commanders,  and  they  had  now 
secured  the  aid,  willing  or  unwilling,*^  of  the  celebrated  Gotz  von 
Berlichingen,  the  hero  of  Gothe's  famous  drama,  who  has  been 
called  a  Seckingen  on  a  smaller  scale.  This  remarkable  man  was 
born  at  Jaxthausen,  in  Wiirtenburg,  the  castle  of  his  family.  He 
was,  in  his  youth,  in  the  household  of  the  Margrave  of  Branden- 
burg. In  1499  he  became  the  head  of  the  family  on  the  death  of 
his  father,  and  began  to  live  as  a  free  knight.  In  1504,  at  the  siege 
of  Landshut,  his  right  hand  was  crushed  so  severely  that  it  came 
away  when  he  took  off  his  gauntlet.  To  replace  it  he  had  a  hand 
of  iron  made  which  he  found  "  of  good  service,"^  and  from  which 
he  was  henceforth  known  as  Gotz  with  the  Iron  Hand.      He  con- 

*2  Luther,  Works  torn.  iii.  alt.  f.  114  torn.  iii.  alt.  f.  124,  et  seq. 

^  Seckendorf  lib.  ii.  p.  8. 

^  For  a  graphic  description  of  their  ruthless  ferocity  see  the  stirring  scenes  of 
Gothe's  "  Gotz  von  Berlichingen." 

*^Petrus   Gnodalius,  Historia  de  Seditions  repentina  vulgi  prcecipue  Rusti- 
corum — Anno  1525.     Basil,  1570. 

*^  See  his  Autobiography. 


f   "M 


"•^^ 


t 


>  Ei 


17 

tinued  his  profitable  career  of  robbery  in  the  following  years  till, 
having  declared  war  on  the  city  of  Heilbronn  (in  a  Fehdebrief 
still  preserved  in  the  city  archives),  he  was  defeated  and  captured. 
He  now  suffered  imprisonment  for  four  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  he  obtained  his  liberty  on  the  payment  of  a  ransom  of  2000 
florins.  In  1513  he  declared  war  against  Niirnburg:  waylaid 
merchants  returning  from  Leipsic,  plundered  such  as  had  any- 
thing valuable  with  them,  and  carrying  off  the  rest  confined  them 
in  dungeons  until  they  had  paid  ransoms.  For  this  he  was  placed 
under  the  Ban  of  the  Empire,  and  ordered  to  pay  a  fine  of  14,000 
florins.  Having  with  difficulty,  and  after  some  time,  collected  that 
sum,  he  was  restored  to  his  civil  rights.  This  man  having  been 
made  commander-in-chief  of  the  peasants  in  Swabiaand  Franconia, 
did  not  seem  to  relish  his  position,  but  wrote  to  the  nobles  then 
assembled  at  Schweinfurt,*^  and  to  Conrad,  Bishop  of  Wurtzburg, 
to  explain  the  reason  of  his  apparent  disloyalty.  He  said  that 
when  his  castle  of  Gundelsheim  was  taken  by  the  peasants  he 
was  obliged  in  fear  of  immediate  death  to  accept  their  offers  and 
to  become,  in  his  own  phrase,  rather  the  servant  of  their  folly  than 
the  leader  of  their  forces.  He  added  that  since  he  had  been  with 
them  he  had  done  all  in  his  power  to  prevent  their  outrages,  and 
that  he  had  preserved  the  castles  of  many  nobles  in  the  Electorate 
of  Mainz,  and  up  to  the  Black  Forest,  from  being  burnt ;  that  he 
had  warned  the  Bishop  of  the  contemplated  attack  on  Wurtzburg  ; 
and  that  he  was  anxious  to  make  his  escape  from  them,  but  had 
always  been  too  closely  watched  to  be  able  to  do  so.  The  princes 
appear  to  have  believed  him.  By  this  time,  however,  the  career 
of  the  peasants'  success  in  Franconia  and  Swabia  was  over.  The 
princes  had  united  to  put  them  down.  Casimir  of  Anspach- 
Baireuth  attacked  them  vigorously,  defeated  some  of  them,  and 
'*  hanged  the  ringleaders  literally  by  dozens."*®  From  one  side 
the  army  of  the  Swabian  League,  lead  by  George  Truchsess, 
Baron  of  Waldburg,  and  William  Count  Fiirstenburg,  defeated 
them  in  several  battles  near  Ulm,  following  them  down  to 
Biberach  and  even  to  the  lake  of  Constance.  From  another 
quarter  the  Palatine  and  the  warlike  Archbishop  of  Treves 
attacked  them,  and  found  little  resistance  in  the  three  battles  that 
took  place.  Gotz  was  pardoned  on  pledging  his  word  of  honour 
never  again  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  Empire,  and  retired  to  his 
castle  of  Homberg  where  he  wrote  his  autobiography,  an  interest- 
ing and  peculiar  record  of  his  remarkable  life,  and  died  on  the 
23rd  of  July,  1562. 

Very  different  was  the  punishment  of  the  misguided  peasants. 
All  the  horrors  of  their  own  victories  were  repeated  on  themselves, 
and  their  outrages  avenged  by  brutalities  as  shameless. 

We  must  now  return  to  Miinzer,  who,  when  the  insurrection 
in  Franconia  had  been  organised,  went  into  Saxony  and  Thuringia 

*7  Gnodalius.  *^  Carlyle,  Friedrich  IT.,  book  iii.  ch.  5. 

C 


:r 


I 


i8 

where  he  stirred  up  a  rebellion  of  equally  alarming  proportions. 
Here  too  came  Luther  trying  to  put  out  the  conflagration  which 
the  Anabaptists  had  excited.      He  was  recalled  however  by  the 
death  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony .^^     Frederic  was  very  ill  when  the 
insurrection  broke  out  in  his  dominions,  and  too  weak  to  take  any 
part  in  the  contest,  but  he  wrote  a  noble  letter  to  his  brother 
John,  who  was  about  to  join  the  league  against  the  peasants,  in 
which  he  acknowledged  the  hardships  that  the  unfortunate  men 
had  suffered,  and  laid  much  of  the  blame  on  the  severity  of  the 
lay  and  ecclesiastical  lords,  but,  added  he,  "  fortassis  maxima  causa 
motuum  miseris  data  est,  prohibita  prsedicatione  verbi    Dei."^ 
Not  many  days  afterwards  the  Wise  Elector,  kind  and  considerate 
to  the  end,  breathed  his  last.     Miinzer  was  attended  by  perfect 
success  in  Thuringia   and    Saxony  :  at   Miihlhausen   he   became 
one  of  the  rulers  of  the  city,  and  all  existing  institutions  seemed 
doomed  to  make  way  for  the  law  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  which 
he  was  to  set  up.     He  inculcated  the  absolute  necessity  of  killing 
ungodly  rulers,^^  and  would  have  had  no  hesitation  in  carrying  his 
principles  into  practice.     He  was  associated  in  the  command  with 
another  fanatic,  a  renegade  priest  named  Pfeiffer,  who  was  even 
more  bloodthirsty  than  himself.      Luckily  his  opportunities  were 
not  so  many  as  those  of  the  vSwabian  peasants.      Duke  George 
of  Saxony  collected  an  army,  and,  having  been  joined  by  Philip  of 
Hessen  and  Henry  of  Brunswick,  marched  against  the  insurgents, 
whom    he    found    encamped    on    the    ridge    of    the    hills    above 
Frankenhausen.      There  the  wretched  assemblage,  very  ill  armed 
and  totally  destitute  of  organisation,  was  posted,  and  awaited  the 
approach  of  the  princes  with  silent  dismay.     When  the  Duke  had 
advanced  near  enough  to   notice  the  miserable  condition  of  the 
rebels  he  humanely  sent  to  offer  them  their  lives  and  liberty  to 
return  home  if  they  would  deliver  up  their  leaders.     Miinzer,  when 
he  heard  the  terms  offered,  attempted  in  a  violent  harangue  to 
restore  the  courage  of  his   men.       Pretending  that   he  was  now 
directly  inspired,  he  declared  that  the  Divine  assistance  had  been 
promised  him,  and  prophesied-  a  certain  victory  by   special   aid 
from  Heaven.     The  fiery  darts  of  the  enemy  should  fall  harmless 
around  the  children  of  God,  and  the  tyrants  should  be  confounded 
in  their  own  machinations.     His  oratory  was  not  without  its  usual 
effect.     The  miserable  peasants  insanely  flung  away  their  hope  of 
life,  and  rejected  the  offers  with  contumely.     Nothing  could  now 
avert  their  destruction.      Their  only   defence — a   slight  rampart 
formed  by  waggons — was  immediately  destroyed  by  the  artillery, 
and  the  Saxon  soldiers  rushed  in  upon  them  sword  in  hand.    The 
first   rank    made    no    resistance,    but,    singing   a    hymn,    waited 
patiently  for  the  heavenly  aid  they  had   been   promised.     They 
*9  Spalatin.  torn.  iii.  fol.  303.        ^  Quoted  by  Seckendorf  lib.  ii.  sect.  2. 

61  Auslegung  des  unterschyds   Danielis   des   Propheten  etc.,    durch    Thomas 
Miinzer  1524.     Quoted  by  Ranke. 


) 


19 

were  cut  down  without  mercy.  The  rest  of  the  peasants,  seeing 
the  destruction  of  their  first  line,  fled  precipitately  into  the  town, 
where  they  were  followed  by  the  soldiers,  who  captured  all  the 
survivors,  Miinzer  and  Pfeiffer  among  the  rest. 

The  defeat  was  complete.  All  the  towns  surrendered,  and 
Muhlhausen  was  treated  with  deserved  severity.  Pfeifl"er  and 
ninety-two  of  the  citizens  were  brought  before  the  princes.  The 
younger  ones  were  pardoned,  but  the  greater  number  were  imme- 
diately beheaded.  Pfeiffer  died  stubbornly  —  "  diabolically 
obdurate"  says  Gnodalius — without  a  word  of  penitence  or 
entreaty.  Soon  afterwards  Miinzer  was  brought  out.  Over- 
whelmed with  terror  he  could  not  utter  the  customary  prayers 
and  declaration  of  faith  till  Henry  of  Brunswick  encouraged  him 
to  proceed.  He  acknowledged  his  crimes  and  made  public  con- 
fession of  his  errors.  He  then  turned  to  the  princes  and 
implored  them  to  greater  lenity  and  charity  towards  their  vassals, 
as  the  only  way  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  rebellions.  He 
was  allowed  to  speak  as  long  as  he  wished  ;  and  when  he  had  finished 
he  commended  his  soul  to  the  mercy  of  God  and  received  with 
fortitude  the  stroke  of  the  executioner.  His  head  was  placed  on 
a  pike  which  was  fixed  in  the  middle  of  the  camp.  His  execu- 
tion took  place  shortly  before  the  final  defeat  of  the  peasants  in 
Franconia,  and  the  absolute  annihilation  of  the  Thuringian  rebels 
no  doubt  served  to  discourage  their  still  fighting  fellows.  But  as 
Miinzer  was  the  great  popular  leader  of  the  movement  we  may 
take  his  death  as  the  real  termination  of  the  crisis  and  security 
for  the  renewed  tranquillity  of  the  Empire. 

Contemporary  historians  were  much  busied  with  discussion  as 
to  the  connection  of  these  disturbances  with  the  spread  of  the 
Lutheran  opinions,  and  the  Reformers  have  been  severely  stigma- 
tised by  hostile  writers  as  the  instigators  of  the  war.  All  those 
who  advocate  moderate  and  necessary  reforms  have  been  exposed 
to  similar  charges.  Opinions,  in  themselves  not  subversive  to 
the  national  constitution  and  advocated  by  their  originators  in  a 
temperate  spirit,  become  in  the  hands  of  demagogues  fraught 
with  harm,  and  under  the  direction  of  empirics  attended  with 
excesses  which  are  often  hastily  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  authors 
of  what  mav  have  been  in  itself  but  a  rational  and  beneficial 
project.  At  the  same  time  doctrines  such  as  Luther  preached 
and  Hutten  advocated  were  more  than  usually  liable  to  such 
construction  by  ignorant  and  weak  minds.  The  anathemas 
denounced  against  the  successor  of  Saint  Peter,  the  supreme 
head  of  the  Christian  hierarchy,  could  not  be  so  openly  pro- 
claimed without  causing  influences  hostile  to  the  principles  of 
imperial  government.  The  Constitution  of  the  Empire  was 
based,  as  we  have  said,  on  exactly  the  same  theory  as  that  of  the 
Church.  In  theory  at  least  they  were  the  two  parts  of  one  and 
the   same   whole,   which   held   all   power   in    Christendom.     In 

c  2 


20 

practice  of  course  the  dissensions  were   frequent,    but   most   of 
them  were  based  upon  a  natural  inference  from  the  theory  itself. 
One  of  the  two  powers  must  be  the  superior,  and   it  was   the 
constant  effort  of  Emperors  and  Popes  to  prove  their  right  to  this 
position.     The  tendency  of  the  age   was  to  efface  entirely  the 
remembrance     of    this     "  Imperial     dream  " — but     within     the 
memories  of  men  it  had  been  the  chief  object  of  Emperors  on 
the  one  hand  and  of  Popes  on  the  other  to  carry  it  into  practice 
and  give  it   greater  development.     The  fantastic  idea  of  Maxi- 
milian to  aspire  to  the  Papacy  has  been  taken  merely  in  jest  by 
some  writers,  but  a  great  historian  has  proved  that  it  was  neither 
so  ridiculous  nor  so  impossible  as    has    been    supposed.      The 
Emperor's  letter  to   Lichtenstein   on  the  subject  may  be  taken 
as  an    evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  his  intention,  and  examples 
are    not    wanting   to    prove    that    the    difficulties    attending    its 
execution  might  not  have  been  insurmountable.     The  importance 
of  such   a   step   on  the   future   of  the   Empire    could    hardly    be 
exaggerated.       The    course  of  the  Reformation  would  probably 
have     been    entirely     different.       But    it    is    difficult    to    reason 
seriously    on  the    probable    results    of  such    an    event,    however 
possible  for  the  moment  it  may  have  been.      All  such  projects  for 
union  were  unsuccessful.     The  rule  of  such  men  as  Julius   II. 
and  Leo  X.  tended  only  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  Empire 
and    the    Papacy,   till   the    course    of    the   Reformation    severed 
Germany  for  ever  from   Rome.     The   Reformers   have  been  ably 
defended   in  their  own  times   and   by  modern  writers  from  the 
charge    of    having  caused    the    Bauernkrieg.      The    conduct  of 
Luther  indeed  was  so  plainly  antagonistic  to  the  peasants  that 
his  detractors  have  been  forced  to  modify — and  at  the  same  time 
envenom — their  accusation  against  him  into  one  of  first  fomenting 
the  insurrection,  and  t^en,  when  he  saw  that  it  was  likely  to  be 
unsuccessful,  turning  against  it.      The  refutation  of  this  calumny 
is  evident  to  any  reader  of  his  works.      He   had   no   sympathy 
whatever  with  such  disturbances,  and  always  opposed  any  such 
resort  to  violence.     At  the  same  time  the  extreme  vehemence  of 
his  language   and   his  hasty  and   ill  considered  attacks  on  every 
ecclesiastical  establishment  cannot  leave  him  blameless  in  the 
affair.      No    one    could   seriously   believe   that    he    favoured  the 
relic^ious  views   of  such   men   as    Storch   and   Miinzer.     On  the 
contrary  his  intolerance  was  even  more  marked  with  regard  to 
their  opinions  than   to  those   of  the   Romanists.       At    first   he 
regarded  their   extravagances   rather  as   follies  with   which  the 
spirit    of  Evil   was    amusing    himself — "  Sic    ludit    Satanas    in 
hominibus"  says  he  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin,  the  secretary  and 
biographer  of  Frederic  the  Wise.      But  he  soon  perceived  a  more 
serious  intent  on  the  part  of  the  diabolical  agencies  to  whom  he 
attributed  almost  every  important  event,  and  began  to  denounce 
the  Anabaptist  preachers  as  the  willing  agents  of  the  devil. 


V 


J 


s 


>  If 


21 

The  doctrine  of  these  men  was  by  no  means  stifled  by  the 
defeat  of  their  political  organisations  and  we  shall  see  the 
subversive  tendencies  of  their  views  in  fuller  operation  a  few 
years  later. 

There  is  one  important  phase  of  this  struggle  to  which  we 
have  hitherto  hardly  alluded — the  actual  reforms  contemplated 
by  the  peasants.     These  included  alterations  far  more  complete 
and  changes  far  more  revolutionary  than  the  simple  demands  of 
the  Twelve  Articles.     To  this  no  doubt  the  alliance  with  the 
cities  contributed  ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  few  of  the  outbreaks  of  rebellion  among  the  lower  classes 
from  the  tenth  to  the  nineteenth  century  have  been  without  some 
practical  scheme  for  reform  in  the  system  of  national  government. 
The  Norman  Peasants'  War  of  997  is  remarkable  as  affording  an 
early  instance  of  this.^^      The  leaders  of  that  insurrection  estab- 
lished a  representative  assembly  to  which  two  deputies  were  sent 
by  the   peasants   of  each   district.     This  body   met   and   framed 
enactments  which  struck  at  the  very  root  of  the  abuses  they  had 
rebelled  against,  and  its  decisions  were  submitted  to  by  the  whole 
of  the  peasant  class  without  hesitation.     Very  similar  to  this  was 
the  central  government  established  at  Heilbronn  by  the  Fran- 
conian  insurgents  in  1525,  where  the  contemplated  reforms  were 
discussed.       They    had    formed    plans    which    if    carried    into 
operation  would  have  revolutionised  the  whole    system    of  the 
Empire.     Their  projects  were  as  ambitious  as  those  of  Seckingen 
— since  the  princes  and  the  knights  were  unable  to  reform  the 
State  they  would  attempt  it  themselves.^     At  the  head  of  their 
demands  we  find  an  article  that  takes  its  place  in  many  schemes 
of  reformation  from  early  to  recent  times — that  there  should  be  an 
uniform  coinage  and  fixed  scale  of  weights  and  measures.     The 
hatred  of  the  people  towards  the  Roman  Law,  which  had  been 
gradually  introduced  by  the  Kaisers,  also  comes  out  here.     The 
doctors  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  appear  in  the  lawcourts ;  they 
were  to  exist  only  on  sufferance  at  the  Universities.    Reformation 
of  the  judicial  and  administrative  system  was  indeed  one  of  their 
principal  desires,  and  an  entire  re-organisation  of  the  Courts  was 
intended.     One  supreme  court  was  to  be  created,  which  was  to 
be  called,  like  that  established  by  Maximilian,  the  Kammergericht. 
It  was  to  be  composed  of  two  princes,  two  counts  regnant,  three 
burghers    from    the    Imperial    cities,    three    from    the    princely 
residences,    and   four  from   all   the   Communes   in   the   Empire. 
Beneath  this  were  to  be  four  Hofgerichte :    sixteen  local  courts, 
Landgerichte  :  and  sixty-four  Freigerichte,  which  were  to  regulate 
taxation  and  such  matters.      These  were  all  to  contain  represen- 

^2  Freeman's  Norman  Conquest^  vol.  i.  ch.  4. 

^  The  whole  of  this  branch  of  the  subject  has  been  so  admirably  and 
exhaustively  treated  by  Ranke  (book  ill.  ch.  6)  that  any  attempt  to  sketch  it 
must  be  indebted  to  his  studies  and  based  upon  his  lucid  explanation. 


■j?r 


\ 


22 


^3 


tatives  of  the  peasants.  Thus  the  equal  right  of  every  citizen  to 
have  a  share  in  the  government  of  his  country— the  old  Teutonic 
freedom  which  Tacitus  described  and  which  must  have  sounded 
strangely  in  the  sixteenth  century— was  insisted  upon.  But  the 
change  which  perhaps  most  of  all  showed  the  sweeping  nature  of 
their^'measures  was  the  proposal  to  secularize  immediately  the 
whole  of  the  ecclesiastical  property.  The  enormous  results  of  so 
vast  a  confiscation  had  been  carefully  calculated.  The  proceeds 
were  to  be  a  compensation  to  the  lords  for  the  loss  of  their  feudal 
rights,  which  were  to  be  entirely  abolished  ;  they  were  to  provide 
for  the  public  necessities  of  the  Empire,  and  to  release  the  nation 
from  all  tolls  and  duties.  The  peasants  further  would  admit  of 
no  rulers  but  the  Emperor,  as  the  Caesar  to  whom  obedience  was 
commanded  in  the  Gospel,  and  his  deputies. 

So  the  peasants  failed  in  their  attempt  to  reforn  the  Empire,  as 
the  Emperors,  the  Councillors,  and  the  Knights  had  failed  before 
them.  It  was  now  to  be  seen  who  would  next  come  forward  as 
the  champion  of  progress— by  what  means  the  Reformation  in 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  government  would  be  effected,  and  whether 
with  it  national  unity  and  the  consolidation  of  the  Empire  were  to 
be  attained. 


III. 

1525—1547- 

While  the  Peasants'  War  had  been  filling  the  minds  of  men  in 
the  South  an  important  revolution  had  been  taking  place  in  the 
North  of  Germany.     In  Prussia  there  remained  the  great  religious 
Order  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  who  had  conquered  the  country  they 
now  governed.     Albert  of  Brandenburg,  the  brother  of  the  Mar- 
grave Casimir,  whose  exploits  in  the  Peasants'  War  have  been 
mentioned,  was  elected  Grand  Master  (Hochmeister)  of  the  Order 
in  151 1.     The  position  was  by  no  means  a  bed  of  roses.     Into  the 
history  of  the  feud  between  the  Knights  and  Poland  it  would  be 
tedious    to  enter  ;    suffice  it  to  say   that  the  homage  which  the 
Polish  Kings  had  for  some  time  been  successful  in  obtaining  was 
refused  by  the  new  Grand  Master.     Sigismund  of  Poland,  who 
was  Albert's   uncle,   was  in    no   haste  to  proceed  to  hostilities, 
though  he  refused  in  the  slightest  to  withdraw  his  claims.  On  the 
other  hand  Albert  was  reluctant  to  retire  tamely  from  the  position 
of  defiance  he  had  taken  up.     All  his  efforts  to  procure  assistance 
from  the   Knights  in    other  parts  of  the    Empire,    or  from   the 
Princes,    were    unsuccessful.     In   1519  war  could  no  longer  be 
averted  ;  it  ended,  as  was  inevitable,  in  the  defeat  of  the  Knights ; 
Sigismund,  with  rare  generosity,  granting  a  truce  for  four  years. 
During  these  years  Albert  paid  much  attention  to  the  great  ques- 


♦       11     ^ 


tions  which  were  then  so  profoundly  agitating  the  rest  of  Ger- 
many. Whether  the  fact  that  it  was  manifestly  to  his  interest  to 
embrace  the  Lutheran  opinions  influenced  him  in  his  determina- 
tion is  not  for  us  to  say.  But  after  much  consultation  and  an 
interview  with  Luther  he  took  the  decisive  step  which  is  known 
as  the  Secularization  of  Prussia.  By  the  peace  of  Cracow  in 
1525  he  became  hereditary  Duke  of  Prussia  instead  of  Grand 
Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order;  he  repudiated  his  vows  and  gave 
up  his  semi-religious  position  ;  he  granted  permanent  possession 
of  the  lands  they  then  held  temporarily  to  those  Knights  who 
agreed  to  the  change;  he  secularized  the  Order,  and  the  Kings  of 
Poland,  in  return  for  personal  homage,  guaranteed  the  freedom  of 
the  new  duchy. 

The  immediate  effects  of  this  change  were  not  important.  It 
raised  a  storm  of  indignation  on  the  part  of  the  rest  of  the  Order; 
the  Emperor  placed  the  Duke  under  the  Ban  ;  but  men  were  too 
much  occupied  with  the  struggle  around  them  to  think  of  the 
distant  Prussia.  It  was  one  of  the  steps  however  in  the  change 
which  was  placing  the  conduct  of  the  religious  and  political  revo- 
lution in  different  hands.  The  Knights,  the  lower  order  of 
nobility,  had  at  first  seemed  to  be  identified  with  the  movement 
which  was  aiming  at  religious  liberty  and  national  unity.  After 
they  had  been  crushed  the  cause  appeared  to  be  that  of  the 
wild  Bauernkrieg.  But  the  failure  of  both  these  enterprises — 
owing  to  their  own  inherent  weaknesses — had  not  destroyed  the 
vitality  of  the  motive  principle  :  it  had  only  given  its  direction  to 
different  agents.  From  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Miihlhausen  the 
change  began,  and  one  of  the  first  events  that  distinctly  helped  it 
was  the  Secularization  of  Prussia.  The  death  of  Frederic  the 
Wise  had  a  similar  result.  He  had  always  been  careful  and 
prudent,  rather  suffering  than  supporting  Luther.  But  his 
brother  and  successor  took  up  resolutely  the  opinions  of  the 
Reformers,  and  declared  very  soon  after  his  accession  to  the 
Electorate  his  determination  to  establish  their  form  of  worship  in 
his  dominions.  Margrave  Casimir  of  Brandenburg,  who  was 
governing  Baireuth  for  his  infirm  father,  was  inclined  to  the 
same  party,  and  his  brother  George  (^'a  simple  hearted,  truth 
loving,  modestly  valiant  man,  rising  unconsciously  into  the 
heroic  figure,"  says  Carlyle^*)  was  an  active  and  consistent  mem- 
ber of  it.  He  had  brought  his  doubts  to  Luther  and  been 
satisfied  of  the  truth  of  his  explanation  of  the  great  revolution. 
As  soon  as  he  was  convinced  he  became  a  w^arm  supporter  of  the 
movement.  The  Landgrave  of  Hessen  also  attached  hirnself 
firmly  to  the  Lutheran  cause.  He  had  brought  two  Lutheran 
preachers  to  Miihlhausen  with  him,  and  had  consequently  met 
with  a  reproof  from  George  of  Saxony,  who  remained  faithful  to 
his  old  teachers.     Though  he  was  never  a  very  strong  character 

**  Friedrich  11.^  book  iii.  ch.  5. 


24 

his  aid  at  this  time  was  usefuh     The  adherence  of  these  princes 
to  the  new  doctrines,  though  it  had  not  taken  the  shape  of  a 
formal  aUiance,  caused  great    alarm  to  the  Catholic  party.     In 
1525  the  Elector  of  Mainz,  Cardinal  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  and 
his  brother  the  Elector  Joachim  I.,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  Duke 
George  of  Saxony,  and  some  other  princes  met  at  Dessau  and 
formed  an  alliance,  perhaps  not  definite  but  certainly  real,  for  the 
purpose  of  resisting  the  increase  of  the    religious    reformation. 
The   news  of  their   meeting   produced    a    similar   consternation 
among  the  Lutherans,  and  the  Landgrave  of   Hessen   at  once 
sent  his  chamberlain  to  concert  a  counter  treaty  with  the  Elector 
of  Saxony.     John  Frederic,  the  son  of  the  latter,  soon  after  had 
a  personal  interview  with   Philip  in  which  the  subject  was  more 
particularly   considered.      The  result  of  the  various  discussions 
between  the  other  princes  whose  safety  was  threatened  by  the 
Catholic  compact,   and    by   the    Emperor's    letter   from    Seville, 
which  had  recently  become  known,  was    a    League    ratified    at 
Torgau  on  March  4,  1526,  which  was  joined  by  John  of  Saxony, 
Philip  of  Hessen,  Henry  of  Mecklenburg  and  other  princes,  and 
by  the  Imperial  city  of  Magdeburg.     These  Leagues  mark  the 
beginning  of  the  great  struggle  for  political  power   which    was 
now  to  overshadow  the  religious  reformation  that  was  ostensibly 
its    object.      The   princes   saw   in    Luther    a   valuable   assistant 
against  Imperial  and  Papal  domination  and  were  only  too  ready 
to  seize  upon  the  justification  he  gave  for  appropriating  ecclesi- 
astical possessions.     Political  and  religious  motives  thus  united 
to  form  a  strong  aristocratic  party  in  favour  of  the  Reformers. 
On  the  other  side  stood  the  ecclesiastical  electors  and  those  of 
the  secular  princes  who  were  attached  either  by  religious  feeling 
to  the  Church,  by  personal  devotion  to  the  House  of  Austria,  or 
by  conservative  principle  to  the  existing  order  of  things.     The 
two  parties  were  first  displayed  in  full  organization  at  the  Diet  of 
Spires,  June  25,  1526,  when  the  '  Evangelical  '  alliance  appeared 
in  great  splendour  in  the  persons  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and 
the  Landgrave.     Not  long  after  the  opening  of  the  proceedings  a 
letter  from  the   Emperor  was  read  by  one  of  his  deputies,  de- 
claring his  will  that  nothing  should  be  decreed  contrary  to  the 
"ancient   customs,    canons    and    ceremonies   of  the    Church."" 
Most  of  the  cities,  especially  those  in  Upper  Germany,  respect- 
fully   replied    that    the    difficulty    of    enforcing    the    Edict     of 
Worms  was  greater  now  than  ever,  and  petitioned  for  a  National 
Council.      The    firmness   of   the    revolutionary   party   produced 
a  compromise,  agreed  to  by  the  Emperor's  brother  Ferdinand, 
which   declared  that  as  far  as  the   Edict   of  Worms  was  con- 
cerned, each    state  "  should  so  live,  rule    and  bear  itself  as  it 
could  render  good  account  of  to  God  and  the  Emperor."^     This 

w  Sleidan,  lib.  vi. 
"  •*  Fiir  sich  also  zu  leben,  zu  regieren  und  zu  halten,  wie  ein  jeden  solches 


) 


s 


25 

was  the  first  victory  won  by  the  new  party,  and  proved  of  the 
greatest  advantage  to  its  peaceful  growth  during  the   next  few 
years.     Luther  had  now  leisure  to  superintend  the  reforms  that 
were  being  carried  out  in  Saxony.     Casimir  of  Anspach-Barieuth 
died  about  this  time,  and  left  his  infant  son  Albert  to  the  charge 
of  his  brother,  the  "truth-loving"  George.      The  lull,  however, 
was  only  temporary.     It  was  first  broken  by  an  alarm  on  the  part 
of  Philip  of  Hessen  (the  Pack  affair,  not  necessary  to  be  related 
here).     The  incursion  which  the  Landgrave  made  into  Bamberg  " 
served  to  stir  up  the  animosity  of  the  Catholic  league,  and  to  '' 
kindle  the  flames  of  religious  persecution  in  the  neighbouring - 
states.     The  reconciliation  between   Charles  V.   and  the   Pope^ 
which  took  place  at  this  time,  caused  a  change  in  the  Emperor's' 
German  Policy.     He  was  no  longer  desirous  to  annoy  the  Holy' 
See  by  pretending  to  yield  to  the  Lutherans,  and  consequently 
returned  to  the  course  he  had  pursued  previously  to  the  last  Diet-^ 
of  Spires.     The  new  Diet,  which  met  at   Spires  in  March,  1529, " 
and  was  presided  over  by  Ferdinand,  now  King  of  Hungary  and^ 
Bohemia,  annulled  the  Recess  of  the  former  one,  and  ordered  the' 
observance  of  the   Edict   of  Worms.     Against  this  dicision  thc^ 
Lutherans  appealed  in  that  famous  Protest  which  has  given  them  >• 
the  name  by  which  they  have  since  been  known.     The  Protestant -* 
party,  as  we  may  henceforth  call  it,  was  composed  in  addition  to^ 
the  members  of  the  League  of  Torgau,  of  George  of  Anspach,  and'^ 
several  important  cities,    including  Strasburg,   Niirnberg,    Ulm,' 
and  Constance.      The  demand   for  a  National  Council  was   no' 
longer    to    be    resisted,    and    Charles    summoned    the    Diet    of 
Augsburg,  which  met  in   1530,  when  the  Emperor  returned  from 
Italy  to  open  it.     The  occasion  was  one  of  the  most  critical  in  the 
history  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  assembly  was  a  grand  and 
imposing   one.       Charles    V.    again    appeared    in    Germany — no 
longer  the  young  man  whose  advisers  were  the  real  rulers  of  the 
Empire,  but  the  greatest  Monarch  in  Europe,  whose  power  was 
unrivalled   by  that   of  any  other  sovereign,  and   who  owed   the 
greater  part  of  his  uninterrupted  success  to  his  own  genius.     His 
entry  was  accompanied  by  a  great  display  of  religious  and  military 
pomp,  as  befitted  the  style  of  Roman  Emperor. 

Pleased  as  all  the  princes  were  by  his  gracious  manner  and  the 
moderation  of  his  tone,  a  very  short  time  passed  before  they  gave 
a  distinct  declaration  of  their  determination  to  resist  him.  A 
private  interview  took  place  between  the  Emperor  and  his  brother 
and  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  the  Landgrave,  the  Duke  of  Liineburo- 
and  Margrave  George  of  Anspach.  Charles  requested  the  Protes- 
tant princes  to  silence  their  preachers.  The  Landgrave's  defence 
of  his  creed  and  appeal  to  the  witness  of  the  Bible  was  followed  by 
the  bold  refusal  of  Margrave  George — "  Before  I  would  deny  my 

gegen  Gott  und  Kais.  Mt.    hoffet   und   vertrauet    zu   verantworten."     Ranke 
book  iv.  ch.  2. 


26 

God  and  His  Evangel  I  would  rather  kneel  down  here  before  your 
Majesty  and  have  my  head  struck  off.'"^^-"  Nicht  Kopf  ab,  lover 
Fuist   nicht  Kopf  ab,"  replied  Charles  with  his  Flemish  accent. 
Ten    davs   afterwards   was    read   the    Confession    drawn   up    by 
Melancthon,   which  became  the  authoritative  declaration  oi  the 
Protestant  belief.     Everyone  knows  the  details  of  its  presentation 
to  the   Emperor,  which  have  been  so  graphically  described  by 
many  historians.     Into  the  minute  history  of  the  Diet  of  Augs- 
bur^,  since  it  bears  only  indirectly  upon  our  subject,  it  will  be  un- 
necessary to  enter.     It  will  suffice  to  note  the  conclusion  of  the 
proceedings— a  complete  rupture  between  the  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant  parties,  and  a  declaration  of  the  Diet  after  the  latter  party 
had  retired  that  the  Lutheran  doctrines  were  heretical,  to  which 
was  added  a  decree  for  the  restoration  of  the  ecclesiastical  pro- 
perty and  the  establishment  of  a  rigid  censorship  of  theological 
writings      It  must  be  mentioned,  however,  that  at  this  time  the 
Protestant  cause  received   a  check  which   might   have   seemed 
likely  to  prove  fatal,  in  the  division  which  occurred  between  the 
disciples  of   Luther  and  Zuinglius.      The  meeting  between  the 
two  reformers  that  had  taken  place  at  Marburg  in  the  October  of 
the  previous  year,  had  served  only  to  widen  the  breach  between 
them,  and  Charles  took  the  opportunity  of  the  Diet  to  attempt 
still  further  to  separate  them  by  refusing  to  receive  the  Zuinglian 
confession   presented   by  the  cities  of   Strasburg     Memmingen, 
Lindau  and  Constance.**     Upon  the  dissolution  of  the  Diet  pre- 
cautionary measures  were  at  once  taken  by  the  Protestant  princes, 
and  on  the  22nd  December,  1530,  took  place  the  first  meeting  at 
Schmalkalden,    an   unimportant   rather    than    a   small   town   in 
Franconia,^^  where  the  festival  of  Christmas  was  passed  in  con- 
sideration of  the  gloomy  prospect  of  the  future  by  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  the  Landgrave  of  Hessen,  the  Duke  of  Luneburg,  the 
Prince  of  Anhalt,  the  Counts  Gebhardt  and  Mansfeld,  and  envoys 
from  other  Protestant  leaders.     As  Ranke  has  pointed  out,^^  the 
significance  of  the  league  which  was  then  made  was  political  even 
more  than  religious,  and  the  princes  now  took  their  stand  upon 
the  legal  side  of  their  cause.     Their  fear  of  the  Emperor's  employ- 
incr  force  against  them— a  contingency  which  the  Recess  of  the 
Dfet   had    made   them    clearly    foresee— was    increased   by    the 
election  of  Ferdinand,  the  King  of  Bohemia  and    Hungary,  as 
King  of  the  Romans,  in  which  position  he  would  naturally  have 
considerably   more   authority  during  his  brother's  absence  than 
he  had  previously  possessed.     Besides  entering  into  an  alliance 
for  mutual  defence,    subsequently  joined    by  other  princes    and 
cities    and  famous  as  the  Schmalkaldic  League,  the  assembled 
leaders  sent  letters  of  complaint  against  the  Emperor  to  the  King 
of  France,  and  to  Henry  VIII.    of  England,    and  solicited  the 
«  Carlyle,  Friedrich  II.,  book  iii.,  ch.  5.     ^  Coxe,  House  of  Austria,  ch.  29. 
w  Seckendorf  lib.  iii.,  i.  ^  Book  vi.,  ch.  i. 


) 


i 


27 

aid  of  Denmark  and  the  maritime  cities  of  Germany,  from  whom 
they  received  friendly  but  indefinite  answers.  They  were  ioined 
however,  by  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  who  formed  an  alliance — ^[Vom 
the  first  manifestly  hollow — with  them  at  Saalfeld  on  October 
24,  1531.  The  impetuous  Philip  of  Hessen  wished  at  once  to 
take  up  arms,  but  more  prudent  counsels  prevailed,  and  the  year 
passed  away  without  any  outbreak  in  Germany.  In  Switzerland 
a  civil  war  had  broken  out  between  the  Four  Forest  Cantons  with 
that  of  Zug  and  the  Protestant  Cantons  of  Ziirich  and  Berne, 
which  was  provoked  by  Zuinglius,  v/ho  by  his  rashness  caused  a 
defeat  of  the  men  of  Ziirich  at  Kappel,  where  he  was  himself 
killed. 

The  resolute  attitude  assumed  by  the  Schmalkaldic  League 
was  entirely  successful.  Circumstances  acted  greatly  in  their 
favour.  The  imminent  danger  in  which  the  hereditary  dominions 
of  the  Emperor  was  placed  by  the  sudden  invasion  of  the  Turks 
made  it  absolutely  necessary  that  at  least  the  semblance  of 
internal  peace  should  be  attained  in  the  face  of  such  a  threatening 
outlook,  and  overtures  were  consequently  made,  by  the  advice  of 
the  King  of  the  Romans,  to  the  Protestant  princes.  The  Elector 
Palatine  and  the  Archbishop  of  Mainz  acted  as  mediators,  and 
as  both  parties  had  something  to  gain  by  a  reconciliation  a 
compromise  was  easily  made.  The  First  Religious  Peace,  as  it 
afterwards  came  to  be  called,  was  signed  at  Niirnberg,  in  July, 
1532.  It  provided  that  the  Lutherans  should  be  allowed  full 
freedom  of  worship,  that  all  judicial  action  against  them  should 
be  suspended,  that  the  ecclesiastical  property  should  not  be 
restored,  and  that  on  the  other  hand  the  Protestant  princes  should 
furnish  their  proper  complement  of  men  and  money  to  the 
Emperor  for  his  present  needs,  and  should  not  protect  the 
Zuinglian  or  Anabaptist  heretics.  The  weakness  of  this  treaty 
lay  in  the  temporary  nature  of  its  provisions,  which  were  to  be 
ultimately  submitted  to  a  General  Council.  The  Landgrave  was 
extremely  reluctant  to  agree  to  it  on  account  of  its  intolerant  and 
impolitic  exclusion  of  the  Zuinglians.  He  finally  signed,  however, 
and  the  ratification  took  place  at  the  Diet  at  Ratisbon  on 
August  2.  A  fortnight  afterwards  the  Elector  John,  the  chief  of 
the  Schmalkaldic  League,  who  had  become  so  renowned  in 
Europe  that  he  was  spoken  of  as  the  rival  of  the  Emperor  by  so 
shrewd  a  man  as  Henry  VIII.^  was  struck  with  apoplexy  and 
died,  "  in  security  and  peace." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Turkish  War  Germany  was  disturbed 
by  Philip  of  Hessen's  incursion  into  Wiirtenburg  where  he 
restored  Duke  Ulrich,  who  had  been  driven  out  of  the  country, 
just  after  the  death  of  Maximilian,  by  the  Swabian  League.^* 
This  prince  had  lately  become  a  Protestant  and  his  assistance  to 

^1  Ranke,  book  vi.  ch.  5. 
62  Kohlrausch  ch.  xviii.  and  see  the  early  writings  of  Ulrich  von  Hutten. 


28 

the  Schmalkaldic  League  would  of  course  prove  valuable.  His 
dominions  had  been  recently  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  King  of 
the  Romans,  but  the  Landgrave,  who  had  previously  allied  himself 
with  Francis  I.,^  won  an  easy  victory  on  the  13th  of  May,  1533, 
at  Lauffen,  over  Philip  Prince  Palatine,  Ferdinand's  general, 
after  which  almost  the  whole  of  WUrtenburg  submitted  to  its 
former  Duke.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  and  his  cousin  Duke 
George  now  intervened,  and  by  their  mediation  the  Peace  of 
Cadan  was  signed  in  June,  1534.  By  this  peace,  in  addition  to 
the  recognition  of  Ulrich's  restoration  on  the  one  hand  and  of 
Ferdinand's  election  as  King  of  the  Romans  on  the  other,  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Imperial  Chamber  in  ecclesiastical  matters 
was  abolished. 

We  must  now  retrace  our  steps  a  little  to  notice  the  remarkable 
revolution  which  had   been   taking  place  in   Westphalia.^     The 
history  of  Miinster  during  this  period  presents  a  striking  example 
of  the  way  in  which  new  doctrines,  themselves  moderate,  attain 
extravagant   and    unnatural    development    in    the    hands    of  the 
fanatical  and  the  ignorant.     The  worst  features  of  the  Peasants' 
War  are  revived,  with  something  of  grotesque  exaggeration,  in 
the  Anabaptist   Reign   of  Terror.      The   Reformation   had  been 
preached  in   Miinster  by  a  certain  Bernard  Rothman  in  1532.^ 
His  oratory  was  successful  enough  to  alarm  the  Bishop,  and  he 
was  offered  a  sum  of  money  to  leave  the  neighbourhood.      He 
took  the  money  and  went  away  for  a  short  time,  but  soon  returned 
and  obtained  greater  influence  than  ever.     Many  of  the  chief  men 
who  still  adhered  to  the  Roman  Church  left  the  City.  Soon  after- 
wards   several    Anabaptists    arrived,    whose    frantic    preaching 
converted  even  Rothman,  and  soon  gave  them  the  chief  power. 
Their   two   prophets,   Jan    Matthys,  and  Jan   Bockelson,   better 
known  as  John  of  Leiden,  became  the  leaders  in  a  tumult  which 
broke  out  in  December,  1533,  and  ended  in  the  precipitate  flight 
of  still  more  of  the  citizens,  and  the  establishment  of  an  Ana- 
baptist oligarchy,  of  which  Rothman,  who  had   now   become   a 
warm  supporter  of  those  doctrines,  was  one  of  the  directors.     A 
burgher  named  Knipperdolling  was  also  one  of  the  leaders,  and 
private  letters  were  sent  by  him  and  Rothman  to  the  Anabaptists 
in  the  neighbouring  cities,  inviting  them  to  come  to  Miinster  as 
quickly  as  possible,  and  promising  them  ten  times   as  much  as 
they  left  behind.     The  Anabaptists  were  now  supreme,  and  every- 
one who  did   not  profess  their  opinions  was  driven  out.     The 
Bishop   found    it   necessary   to   besiege   the    city,    and,    having 
encamped  in  the  neighbourhood  with  a  large  army,  completed  the 
investment  in  April  and  May.      The  besieged,  however,  had  an 

63  Sleidan  lib.  ix. 

«*  Sleidan  lib.  x. :  Robertson  Charles  V.  book  5  :  Mosheim,  Eccl.  Hist.  vol.  4. 
ch.  5  (Edit.  1782).     Ranke,  book  vi.  ch.  9. 

^  Sleidan  lib.  x. 


f 


i 


29 

abundance  of  stores,  and  there  was  no  hope  of  an  immediate 
reduction  of  so  strong  a  town.  The  prophet,  Matthys,  was  their 
ruler,  and  Knipperdolling  was  dignified  with  the  title  of  Consul. 
The  former  did  not  enjoy  his  authority  long,  for  a  few  days  after 
the  beginning  of  the  siege  he  rushed  through  the  streets  at  full 
speed,  armed  with  a  long  pike,  and,  declaring  that  he 
had  been  divinely  instructed  to  attack  the  enemy's  camp, 
led  a  few  men  forth,  but  was  immediately  slain  by  the  outposts. 
John  of  Leiden  succeeded  to  his  post  and  married  his  widow. 
Knipperdolling  now  declared  that  the  time  was  come  for  the  high 
things  to  be  abased  and  the  humble  exalted  and  gave  a  practical 
explanation  of  his  meaning  by  ordering  all  the  churches  to  be 
demoHshed.  John  of  Leiden  followed  this  up  by  telHng  him  to 
resign  the  title  of  consul  and  become  the  hangman,  to  which  he 
joyfully  agreed.  Meanwhile  the  besiegers  had  received  con- 
siderable accessions  of  strength.  The  Duke  of  Cleves  had  sent 
some  troops  and  cannon,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  brought 
similar  aid.  All  attempts  to  take  the  city  by  storm  failed.  The 
defenders  were  animated  by  the  wildest  enthusiasm,  and  even 
children  were  taught  to  use  the  bow  with  deadly  effect  from  the 
walls.  The  Bishop  accordingly  had  seven  forts  built  to  surround 
the  city  and  cut  off  all  communication  from  the  inhabitants. 

John  of  Leiden  first  placed  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
twelve  men  and  not  long  afterwards  declared  that  it  was  revealed 
to  him  from  heaven  that  the  saints  should  choose  as  man}'  wives 
as  they  pleased.  This  revelation  was  not  accepted  by  such  of 
the  citizens  as  still  retained  some  semblance  of  sanity,  and  this 
party  seized  the  Prophet  and  Knipperdolling  and,  had  it  been 
more  numerous,  would  probably  have  prevented  their  doing  any 
more  mischief.  But  the  mob  easily  rescued  their  prophets,  and  in 
revenge  barbarously  murdered  some  fifty  of  the  moderate  party. 
On  the  23rd  of  June  a  goldsmith  named  Dusentschuer  declared 
that  John'  of  Leiden  was  by  divine  revelation  ordained  to  be 
Monarch  of  the  World,  an  event  which  the  Prophet  of  course 
declared  himself  to  have  known  though  not  announced  some  time 
previously.  The  twelve  rulers  were  consequently  discharged 
from  their  offices  and  the  king  began  to  assume  great  dignity  and 
pomp.  He  adopted  all  the  ensigns  of  royalty,  and  whenever  he 
appeared  abroad  was  attended  by  a  brilliant  following,  two  boys 
walking  behind  him,  one  of  whom  carried  a  bible  and  a  crown, 
the  other  a  drawn  sword.  His  principal  wife  had  similar  state. 
Three  times  a  week  he  sat  upon  a  lofty  throne  in  the  market 
place,  to  administer  justice.  Knipperdolling  was  still  more 
extravagant,  and  indulged  in  blasphemies  and  indecencies  which 
it  would  be  impossible  to  relate.  As  the  siege  continued  and 
famine  began  to  prevail  in  the  city  several  attempts  were  made 
to  assassinate  or  capture  the  Prophet.  But  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  inhabitants  firmly  believed  in  him  and  he  had  little 


30 

difficulty  in  retaining  his  ascendency.     The  preachers  continued 
to  issue  books   in  defence  of  their  opinions,  which  mi^ht  have 
been    listened    to    if    their    practices    had    been    less    licentious. 
They    proclaimed    the    principle   that    goods    should    be  held   in 
common    and    maintained    many    curious    notions    '  Concerning 
the  Mysteries  of  Scripture'.^     As  the  situation  of  the  besiegers 
became  more  hopeless,    John  of  Leiden  became    more   wild    in 
his  proceedings.      One  of  his  wives  presumed  to  doubt  that  it 
was  the  will  of  Heaven  that  the  King  should  live  in  the  greatest 
luxury  while  so  terrible  a  famine   was    raging.     John  took  her 
into   the    market    place  and    himself  beheaded  her,    and  danced 
round  her  body  with    his   other   wives,    exhorting  the   starving 
multitude  to  join   him   in  his  mirth.     The   besiegers   would   no 
longer  receive  the  fugitives  who  managed  to   escape  from   the 
city,    and   entered    into    secret    negociations   with    some    of  the 
citizens  for  a  surrender.      The   King  was  very  vigilant  however 
and  for  some  time  prevented  any  surprise.     At  length,  on  the 
24th  of  June,  1535,  an  assault  was  made,  under  the  direction  of 
two  deserters,  which  proved   successful,  and  after  some  severe 
fighting    in    the    streets    the   town    was    taken,    the    King    and 
Knipperdolling  captured,  and   Rothman  killed.      John  of  Leiden 
was  carried  about  for  some  time  as  a  kind  of  show.     He  was  at 
first  obdurate  in  his  opinions  but  after  a  while  appeared  to  be 
convinced  of  his  errors,  and  confessed  his  wickedness.      Knipper- 
dolling, who  was  far  more  ignorant,  remained  more  firm.     After 
six  months  they  were  both  executed  in   a  horrible  manner  and 
their  bodies  hung  up  in  cages  of  iron,  which  are  still  suspended 
on  the  tower  of  Saint  Lambert's  Church  at  Miinster.     After  the 
bishop   had    regained    his    authority   the    Catholic   worship    was 
immediately   re-established,  the  inhabitants   became  remarkable 
for  their  rigid   and   intolerant  adherence   to  the  old  forms,  and 
MUnster  was   soon    known   as   the    most    ultra-Catholic    city  in 
Germany.     A  reaction  so  marked  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at. 
Complete   submission  to  lawful  government  must  have  seemed 
the  surest  way  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  scenes  so  terrible. 
The  political  significance  of  this   Reign  of  Terror  may  be  dis- 
missed with  a  word:    it  consists  rather  in  an  indication  of  the 
deep-rooted    and    most    irregular  influence   of  the   revolutionary 
idea  than   in   its   bearing   on   the   actual   course   of  the  national 
struggle  for  reform.      Under  all  its  crimes  and  extravagances  and 
follies   we    see   the   same   principle   in   this   Anabaptist   kingdom 
that  was  acting  in  religion,  in  politics,  and  in  learning,  throughout 
the  whole  of  Europe. 

To  return  to  the  Protestant  princes.     They  renewed  in  1535 

the  League  of  Schmalkalden  and  extended  it  for  ten  years.     The 

Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hessen  were  appointed 

to  direct  it,  each  for  six  months,  with  the  title  of  Captain-General. 

^  The  title  of  a  book  they  published:  see  Sleidan  lib.  x. 


'    i' 


31 

Several  cities  and  princes  joined  the  league  and  the  King  of 
England  styled  himself  its  protector.  A  fixed  contribution  of 
men  and  arms  from  each  member  was  arranged  for,  and  the 
organisation  was  completed  on  a  more  settled  basis.  At  the 
same  time  the  publication  of  the  '  Articles  of  Schmalkalden,' 
which  had  been  drawn  up  under  the  influence  of  Luther  by  order 
of  John  Frederic  of  Saxony,  and  were  much  more  strongly 
worded  than  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  served  to  point  out 
that  a  peaceable  arrangement  of  the  religious  diff'erences  was 
extremely  improbable. 

Recent  events  had  greatly  strengthened  the  Protestant  party. 
In  1536  Louis,  Elector  Palatine,  died,  and  his  successor, 
Frederic  H.,  was  devoted  to  the  Lutheran  faith.  Joachim  L  of 
Brandenburg, — "  not  a  beautiful  man  when  you  cross  him  over- 
much "^^ —  who  had  been  one  of  the  warmest  defenders  of  the 
Roman  Church,  died  the  year  before  the  Palatine,  and  his  son 
Joachim  IL  not  long  afterwards  publicly  adopted  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  An  event  still  more  important  was  the  conversion  of 
Hermann,  Archbishop-Elector  of  Cologne.  He  was  not  the  first 
ecclesiastical  convert  of  eminence — the  Bishops  of  Lubek,  Camin, 
and  Schwerin,  had  previously  embraced  the  Reformation.  But  the 
significance  of  such  a  step  on  the  part  of  an  Archbishop,  who  was 
also  an  Elector,  can  hardly  be  overrated.  Not  only  did  the 
Lutheran  doctrines  receive  immediate  and  widespread  extension 
through  the  encouragement  which  the  Archbishop  gave  to  their 
introduction  into  his  dominions,  but  the  importance  of  the  pro- 
ceeding is  patent  as  aff'ording  a  precedent  for  the  retention  of 
temporal  power  that  depended  upon  an  ecclesiastical  office  after 
the  religious  obligations  had  been  repudiated.  Should  such  a 
precedent  be  allowed  there  was  no  reason  why  the  ecclesiastical 
princes  by  becoming  Protestants  should  not  found  an  hereditary 
temporal  sovereignty.  In  addition  to  the  alarming  prospect 
which  this  event  presented  to  the  Catholics,  they  found  them- 
selves in  a  minority  in  the  Electoral  College.  The  Electors  of 
Brandenburg,  Saxony,  Cologne,  and  the  Palatinate  were  Pro- 
testants, and  the  Archbishop-Elector  of  Mainz  had  begun  to  show 
*'  inclinations  towards  Luther,  even  of  a  practical  sort."^  Besides 
the  changes  which  the  last  few  years  had  made  among  the 
Electors,  the  Catholic  party  sustained  a  severe  loss  in  1539,  by  the 
death  on  the  14th  of  April,  of  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  who,  as 
head  of  the  younger  branch  of  the  family,  possessed  large 
dominions,^^  including  towns  so  important  as  Dresden  and 
Leipsic.  His  brother  Henry,  who  succeeded  him,  immediately 
procured  the  assistance  of  Luther  in  the  introduction  of  the 
reformed  doctrines  into  his  territory. 

^  Carlyle,  Friedrich  II.,  book  iii.,  ch.  g. 

®  Carlyle,  book  iii.,  ch.  4. 

*  He  was  Margrave  of  Meissen  and  Thuringia, 


.A^ 


32 

During  all  this  time  the  tranquillity  of  Germany  was  undis- 
turbed ;  the  Protestants  had  everything  to  gain  by  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  Peace  of  Nurnberg,  and  Charles  V.  was  not  yet  pre- 
pared to  annul  it.  He  had  formed  an  alliance,  however,  among 
the  Catholic  princes  in  1538,  but  it  was  neither  strong  nor  sincere. 
The  death  of  Duke  George  and  the  irresolution  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Mainz  renderered  it  still  less  effectual.  The  Emperor  now 
endeavoured  to  secure  himself  against  the  Protestant  princes,  by 
making  separate  treaties  with  some  of  them.  Under  the  cover  of 
his  unfriendly  relations  with  the  Duke  of  Cleves  he  entered  into 
agreements  with  Joachim  II.  and  Philip  of  Hessen,  which  were 
based  upon  the  principle  of  mutual  concession  and  seemed  to 
offer  some  security  for  the  maintenance  of  peace.  The  Landgrave 
was  the  more  ready  to  conclude  this  treaty,  as  the  odium  to  which 
his  recent  bigamy  had  exposed  him  rendered  him  doubtful  of  the 
assistance  of  his  Protestant  allies  in  case  the  Imperial  Chamber 
should  take  up  the  matter  as  a  civil  offence.  Ferdinand,  as  well 
as  his  brother,  was  persistent  in  his  endeavours  to  produce  a 
reconciliation  between  the  parties.  Religious  conferences  were 
held  in  1540  and  in  1541,  but  they  utterly  failed  to  discover  any 
means  of  re-union.  In  the  several  Diets  that  took  place  during 
these  years  the  peace  of  Niirnberg  was  renewed  and  the  Empire 
remained  tranquil,  Charles  showing  the  greatest  anxiety  for  the 
preservation  of  order.  This,  no  doubt,  was  owing  in  a  great 
measure  to  his  own  difficulties — the  wars  in  Algiers,  in  Hungary, 
with  Francis  I.  and  with  William  of  Cleves, — but  the  Emperor 
could  hardly  have  entertained  any  idea  of  immediate  attack  upon 
the  Protestants.  A  further  alliance  was  at  this  time  negociated 
by  the  suggestion  of  a  marriage  between  a  son  of  the  Saxon 
Elector  and  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  the  Romans.  As  soon, 
however,  as  the  Peace  of  Crespy^°  had  freed  the  Emperor  from 
foreign  war  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  great  national  question, 
still  unsettled,  and  renewed  his  pressure  upon  the  Pope  to  call  a 
General  Council.  In  this  he  was  at  last  successful,  and  the  Pope 
summoned  a  Council,  to  meet  at  Trent  on  March  15,  1545.'^  No 
sooner  was  this  known  than  the  Lutheran  princes  protested 
against  it  and  declared  that  they  would  neither  attend  its  sittings 
nor  be  bound  by  its  decisions.  They  demanded  instead  a  Na- 
tional Council,  which  the  Emperor  declared  he  had  no  power  to 
call.  Everything  pointed  towards  a  civil  war.  This  had  been 
already  foreshadowed  by  the  disturbances  in  Brunswick,  where 
the  Duke  had  been  oppressing  the  City  of  Brunswick  and  uttering 
alarming  threats  against  Hamburg,  Hanover,  Menden  and  Bre- 
men, which  towns  he  ordered  to  renounce  what  he  termed  *'  the 
conspiracy  of  Schmalkalden."^^  The  Landgrave  of  Hessen  came 
to  their   assistance,  and  having  offered  through  his  son-in-law, 

70  September  18,  1544. 


W 


71  It  was  not  opened,  however,  till  Dec.  13. 


72  Sleidan. 


33 

Duke  Moritz  of  Saxony  (the  son  and  successor  of  Duke  Henry), 
conditions  of  peace  which  were  not  accepted,  attacked  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick  with  a  superior  force  and  surrounded  him  near  Nord- 
heim,  where  he  compelled  him  to  surrender.  The  Duke  and  his 
son  were  then  carried  off"  and  confined  in  one  of  the  Landgrave's 
Castles.  This  seizure  of  a  Catholic  prince  seemed  not  to  concern 
the  Emperor  much  ;  he  took  no  notice  of  it  beyond  a  request  that 
the  captives  should  be  treated  according  to  their  rank.  But  the 
calm  only  preceded  a  storm,  the  first  of  those  terrible  hurricanes 
which  swept  over  Germany  in  the  next  century,  and  finally  left  her 
— apparently  at  least — in  a  state  of  moral  and  physical  ruin,  at 
the  peace  of  Westphalia.  As  a  story,  the  Schmalkaldic  War  does 
not  possess  the  interest  of  the  Bauernkrieg,  or  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  But  it  is  an  important  phase  of  the  great  Revolu- 
tion. The  time  had  come  when  the  Reformation  was  to  be  the 
cause  of  a  deadly  struggle  among  the  German  princes — unavoid- 
able perhaps,  but  utterly  destructive  of  all  chances  of  national 
unity  as  well  as  entirely  opposed  to  the  whole  teaching  of  the 
great  preacher  of  the  reformed  faith  who  had  just  then  passed 
away.  Luther  died  on  the  i6th  of  February,  1546,  and  his  death 
seemed  the  signal  for  the  beginning  of  the  sanguinary  contest. 
The  time  had  indeed  arrived  for  Charles  to  strike.  The  League 
of  Schmalkalden  had  become  isolated  and  was  on  the  point  of 
dissolution  ;  the  ten  years  for  which  it  had  been  renewed  were 
expired,  and  no  steps  had  been  taken  to  continue  it.  The  princes 
who  had  become  Protestants  since  1535  had  not  joined  it;  and 
the  Emperor  had  how  induced  them  to  withhold  their  assistance 
from  it. 

The  Palatine  and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  had  been 
pledged  to  neutrality ;  and  Moritz  of  Saxony  was  similarly 
engaged.  This  distinguished  man  now  comes  before  us  for  the 
first  time,  and  in  a  manner  very  typical  of  what  seem  the  incon- 
sistencies of  his  character.  The  task  of  reconciling  his  sincere 
religious  views  with  his  political  conduct  at  this  period  and 
during  the  subsequent  war  may  well  be  left  unattempted  here. 
It  will  suffice  for  our  purpose  to  remember  that  the  young  Duke 
approached  more  nearly  to  greatness  than  any  other  Protestant 
prince  then  living  in  Germany.  Prompt,  energetic,  and  far- 
seeing,  he  possessed  many  of  the  requisites  for  a  great  general 
and  a  great  diplomatist,  and  there  was  a  grandeur  and  nobility 
in  his  character  that  seemed  a  few  years  later  to  make  him  the 
real  hero  of  the  hour. 

The  want  of  any  political  bond  of  union  was  severely  felt  by 
the  Protestants:  had  they  possessed  anything  of  the  kind  the  war 
might  have  had  a  very  diff'erent  conclusion.  As  it  was,  the 
Catholics  were  thoroughly  prepared  :  not  so  the  Protestants.- 
The  veil  that  had  for  a  long  time  covered  the  Emperor's  inten- 
tions was  suddenly  withdrawn  by  the  publication  of  a  Papal  Bull 

D 


34 

which  announced  the  alliance  between  the  Empire  and  the  Holy 
See   '  for  the  purification   of  the    Lord's   vineyard.'      The    Pro- 
testants at  once  flew  to  arms.     The  first  army  in  motion  was 
that  of  the  cities,  which  was  commanded  by  Sebastian  Schartlin, 
a  brave  and  experienced  general,  who  had  served  in  all  the  recent 
wars  and  had  been  present  at  the  battle  of  Pavia  and  the  storm- 
ing of  Rome.'^^     His   plans   were   energetic   and   able,   but   the 
alliance  of  Bavaria  and  the  Emperor,  of  which  he  was  ignorant 
until  too  late,  prevented  their  execution  and  obliged  him  to  retire 
from  the  Lech.     A  second  plan — of  intercepting  the  Italian  army 
before  its  junction  with  the  Imperial  forces — was   frustrated  by 
the  folly  of  his   superiors ;    and  he  was  compelled  to  await    the 
arrival    of   the     Elector    and    the    Landgrave    in    the   town    of 
Donauworth,  which  he  had  captured.     These  princes,  who  had 
recently  been  placed  under  the  Ban  of  the  Empire,  arrived  not 
long  after,   and,  with  the  Wiirtenberg  contingent   under  Count 
Heideck,  brought  the  total  of  the  Protestant  forces  up  to  nearly 
50,000  men.     Charles  V.  had  hardly  more  than  34,000,  but   his 
inferiority    in    numbers    was    more    than    compensated    by    the 
disagreements  that  occurred  between  the  leaders,  of  whom  there 
were    too    many,    on    the    other   side.      Had   they   immediately 
attacked  the  Emperor  the  superior  numbers  of  the   Protestants 
might  have  given  them  a  victory  which  would  have  secured  the 
objects  which  as  it  was  were  not  attained  for  the  next  ten  years. 
However,  time  was  lost  in  manoeuvres  which  were  of  no  service 
and   allowed  the  junction  between  the  Emperor  and  the   Papal 
troops  under  Ottavio  Farnese  to  be   effected.     When  this   had 
taken  place  the  Imperialists  marched  to  Ingoldstadt,  and  took  up 
a  position  previously  occupied  by  the  Protestants.     The  latter  at 
length  seemed    determined    upon    an    attack.      The    Landgrave 
forded  the  Danube  and   possessed    himself  of  a  high   piece    of 
ground  called  the  Beacon  Hill,  whence  his  cannon  commanded 
and  did  much  execution  in  the  enemy's  camp.     He  now  advised 
an  immediate  attack,  which  with  remarkable  folly  was  rejected  by 
a  council  of  war.     The   Emperor,  in  consequence,  had  time  to 
fortify  his   camp,   which   gave  an   opportunity    to    the    disunited 
leaders  of  the  Protestants  for  another  argument.     They  finally 
retired    with    their   whole    army   to    attempt   to    intercept    some 
succours  that  were  coming  from  the  Netherlands  under  Count 
Buren.     In  this  again  they  failed.     In  fact  the  history  of  the 
year  is  but  a  chronicle  of  their  failures. 

While  the  Elector  John  Frederic  was  succeeding  so  ill  on  the 
Danube  his  own  dominions  had  been  invaded  by  the  Hungarians 
and  Bohemians  of  King  Ferdinand,  between  whom  and  Duke 
Moritz  an  agreement  was  shortly  afterwards  made  by  which  the 
latter  took  possession  of  the  principal  cities  in  the  Electorate  and 
forced  them  to  swear  allegiance  to  himself.     The  only  possible 

73  See  Seckendorf,  lib.  ii.  6g. 


t 


35 

defence  for  this  conduct,  which  seems  justly  liable  to  be  con- 
demned as  the  extreme  of  treachery  towards  his  cousin,  is  that 
offered  by  Moritz  himself  in  his  manifesto,*^  in  which  he  declared 
that  he  was  resolved  to  remain  firm  in  defence  of  his  religion  and 
had  no  other  aim  but  to  prevent  the  Electorate  falling  into  the 
hands  of  strangers.  However  he  did  not  long  retain  possession 
of  the  country,  for  the  Elector,  returning,  drove  him  out  of  it  very 
quickly.  In  every  other  quarter  Charles  V.  had  been  successful. 
Even  Augsburg  had  banished  Schartlin  and  paid  an  enormous 
fine.  A  letter  from  the  Emperor  had  brought  Ulrich  of  Wiirten- 
burg  to  his  knees.  After  much  humiliation,  and  at  considerable 
sacrifice,  he  procured  a  pardon.  One  cannot  help  wishing  that 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  who  had  so  admirably,  if  so  savagely, 
chronicled  the  early  life  of  this  Duke,  had  been  alive  to  write  a 
Philippic  on  his  conduct  at  this  time. 

When  the  spring  came  Charles  proceeded  to  carry  on  his  con- 
quest to  North  Germany.  The  ceaseless  anxiety  had  told 
remarkably  upon  the  health  of  the  Emperor.  He  had  become 
quite  lame,  his  voice  was  scarcely  audible,  his  hair  had  turned 
gray,  and  his  face  had  assumed  a  deathly  pallor.  The  weakness 
of  his  body  had  also  begun  to  affect  his  mind,  and  to  oppress  him 
with  the  deep  melancholy  that  continued  rapidly  to  grow  upon 
him.  At  present,  however,  sad  though  he  was,  his  spirit  was  still 
firm  and  his  courage  undaunted,  and  he  was  determined  to  bring 
the  war  speedily  to  a  conclusion  by  the  discomfiture  of  his 
enemies.  He  accordingly  marched  into  Meissen,  and  pursued  the 
Elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  retreating  to  Wittenberg,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Elbe.  He  decided  to  press  on  an  engagement,  as  his 
forces  were  four  times  as  numerous  as  the  Saxons,  and  searched 
for  a  ford  to  cross  and  attack  them,  for  the  Elector's  army  being 
slightly  in  advance  destroyed  all  the  bridges.  When  both  armies 
had  reached  Miihlberg,"^^  the  Elector  halted  and  lined  the  bank  of 
the  Elbe  with  infantry  and  field-pieces,  to  defend  his  bridge  of 
boats,  and  to  prevent  the  Emperor  crossing.  However,  a  body  of 
about  a  thousand  Spanish  infantry  plunged  into  the  river,  and 
crossed  in  face  of  a  furious  fire,  capturing  several  of  the  boats 
which  the  Saxons  had  attempted  to  destroy,  and  constructing  a 
bridge  over  which  the  rest  of  the  infantry  could  pass.  The 
Elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  listening  at  this  time  to  a  sermon,  as 
soon  as  he  heard  of  what  had  taken  place,  ordered  a  hasty  retreat 
to  Wittenberg,  hoping  to  escape  before  the  Imperialist  infantry 
had  crossed  the  Elbe.  But  the  Emperor,  seeing  that  everything 
depended  upon  his  speed,  having  discovered  a  ford,  passed  over  with 
his  cavalry,  and  came  upon  the  Saxons  about  three  miles  the 
other  side  of  the  river.  As  the  Imperialists  thus  were  without 
either  infantry  or  artillery  the  Elector  might  have  been  able  to 
defeat  them  if  his  own  army  had  not  been  scattered  about  between 

7*  Sleidan.  76  April  24,  1547. 


II'         ^ 


36 

the  Elbe  and  Wittenberg.  John  Frederic  himself  directed  his 
troops  from  a  carriage  at  first,  but  having  obtained  a  horse  strong 
enough  to  carry  him  he  mounted  it,  and  rode  into  the  thick  of  the 
battle,  where  Charles  was  also  fighting  at  the  head  of  his  Spanish 
cuirassiers.  Success  was  not  long  in  declaring  for  the  Im- 
perialists :  the  Elector  was  wounded,  and  soon  afterwards  forced 
to  surrender,  and  his  troops  were  utterly  routed.'^^  He  was 
brought  before  the  Emperor,  who  received  him  coldly  and  haughtily, 
and  committed  him  to  the  charge  of  the  Duke  of  Alba.  A  few 
days  afterwards  sentence  of  death  was  passed  against  him,  but 
on  the  intercession  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  on  the 
most  severe  conditions,  Charles  consented  to  spare  his  life.  He 
was  obliged  to  renounce  the  Electoral  dignity  and  his  dominions 
for  ever.  He  was  treated  with  great  courtesy.  The  Emperor 
also  displayed  much  consideration  in  his  behaviour  towards  the 
Protestant  cities  he  had  captured.  So  rapid  had  been  his  conquest 
of  Saxony  that  this  German  Caesar  with  some  truth  said,  "  I  came, 
I  saw,  and  God  conquered." 

He  now  turned  towards  the  Landgrave,  who,  seeing  no  hope  of 
deliverance,  sought  the  intercession  of  Moritz  (who  had  received 
the  Electorate  of  Saxony,  with  which  he  was  solemnly  invested 
on  the  24th  of  February,  1548),  and  of  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg. 
His  submission  was  accepted,  and  the  story  of  his  subsequent 
imprisonment  is  well  known." 

Charles  V.,  at  this  moment,  had  reached  the  summit  of  his 
power  in  Germany,  but  the  very  acts  which  seemed  calculated  to 
maintain  him  contained  the  seeds  that  produced  his  fall.  The 
imprisonment  of  the  Elector  and  the  Landgrave  appeared  to 
secure  him  from  Protestant  attack  until  the  religious  settlement  of 
the  nation  should  have  been  made.  The  elevation  of  Duke 
Moritz,  which  he  owed  entirely  to  the  Emperor,  seemed  to  secure 
his  fidelity,  but  in  reality  the  means  of  his  elevation,  the  plans 
which  the  Emperor  was  now  proceeding  to  execute,  and  the  im- 
prisonment of  the  Landgrave,  if  not  that  of  the  Elector,  had  com- 
pletely alienated  Moritz  from  his  benefactor.  The  danger  to  the 
Catholic  majority  lay  in  this  ambitious  and  able  prince,  on  whom 
the  future  of  Protestantism  in  Germany  now  depended. 

76  This  sketch  of  the  battle,  which  differs  shghtly  from  the  usual  accounts,  is 
based  upon  that  of  Sleidan. 

■^7  There  is  a  graphic  sketch  in  Carlyle's  Friedrich  II.,  which  everyone  knows 
(book  iii.,  c.  10),  but  there  seems  little  ground  for  the  story  of  the  quibble  about 
'  ohne  einigen  Gelangniss."       See  Robertson  Charles  V.   (vol.  iii.  p.  423   edit 
1782),  and  Menzel  Neuere  Gesch.  der  Deutschen  (B.  ii.  s.  94). 


f 


i^ 


t 


1 


2^7 


ly. 

1547—1555- 

The  conclusion  of  the  Schmalkaldic  War  left  Germany  at  the 
feet  of  Charles  V.  Yet  he  showed  no  desire  to  make  himself  an 
absolute  Monarch,  but  seemed  anxious  for  a  pacific  termination  of 
the  religious  troubles  on  a  basis  conformable  to  the  ancient 
constitution  of  the  Empire.  There  is  no  reasan  to  doubt  his  real 
desire  for  the  welfare  of  his  people.  Sincere  Catholic  as  he  was, 
he  may  fairly  be  praised  for  toleration  rather  than  blamed  for 
bigotry.  It  was  no  fault  of  his  that  no  conclusion  of  this  gigantic 
revolution  could  be  found  in  his  lifetime  :  it  was  his  misfortune  to 
rule  over  so  large  an  Empire  at  so  critical  a  period.  It  is  useless, 
though  tempting,  to  speculate  on  what  might  have  been  the 
history  of  the  Reformation  if  Charles  V.  had  been  able  to  give  all 
his  energies  to  Germany.  For  a  man  who  governed  so  vast  a 
dominion  it  was  impossible  to  control  that  mighty  movement. 

The  first  important  event  after  the  battle  of  Miihlberg  was  the 
meeting  of  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  in  1548,  which  the  Emperor 
attended  in  person.  All  attempts  to  obtain  a  satisfactory  solution 
of  the  religious  difficulties  at  the  Council  of  Trent  having  failed, 
Charles  V.  decided  to  crush  the  schism  in  Germany  by  his  own 
authority.  Accordingly  he  ordered  the  Bishop  of  Naumburg,  a 
Catholic  of  the  old  school,  Michael  Helding,  Grand  Vicar  of 
Mainz,  a  moderate  man  of  the  opinions  of  Erasmus,  and  Johanu 
Islebius  Agricola,  the  court  preacher  of  Joachim  II.  of  Brandenburg, 
to  draw  up  some  articles  that  should  be  accepted  as  a  compromise 
until  the  calling  of  a  Council  which  should  be  acknowledged  by 
both  parties.  They  agreed  upon  a  declaration  which  from  its 
temporary  provisions  became  known  as  The  Interim,  in  which 
all  the  cardinal  doctrines  and  ceremonies  of  the  Roman  Church 
were  maintained,  but  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  was  permitted  by 
dispensation,  and  it  was  decided  that  the  reception  of  the 
Eucharist  in  both  kinds  should  be  allowed  to  the  laity.  The 
Emperor  ordered  the  articles  to  be  read  to  the  Diet,  and,  probably 
by  a  preconcerted  arrangement,  no  sooner  had  he  finished  the 
speech  in  which  he  recommended  their  acceptance  than  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Mainz  sprang  up  and  declared  the  Diet's  submission  to 
the  Decree.'®  The  Emperor  chose  to  consider  this  a  full  ratifi- 
cation of  '  The  Interim '  and  immediately  began  to  put  it  into 
execution.  Many  of  the  princes  accepted  it,  most  of  them  through 
compulsion.  But  it  pleased  no  one.  The  general  feeling  of  the 
nation  was  tersely  expressed  in  the  rough  distich 

'•  Das  Interim 
Hat  den  Schalk  hinter  ihm." 

The  Protestants  regarded  it  as  a  secret  attempt  to  re-establish 

78  Sleidan. 


^     .-.< 


38 

Romanism  in  their  dominions  by  degrees — the  thin  end  of  the 
wedge.  The  Catholics  had  the  authority  of  the  Pope  for  re- 
jecting it  altogether.  But  its  promulgation  caused  a  temporary 
lull  in  the  political  world.  It  is  true  Moritz  of  Saxony  refused 
from  the  first  to  receive  it,  but  no  attempt  was  made  to  force  him 
to  compliance.  So  two  years  passed  away.  They  were  years  of 
increasing  discontent  among  all  classes  in  Germany.  The 
Emperor  was  absent  in  the  Netherlands  :  the  country  was  over- 
run by  Spanish  soldiers,  whose  insolence  and  rapacity  excited  the 
greatest  indignation  :  above  all,  the  religious  grievances  seemed 
further  than  ever  from  a  satisfactory  settlement.  At  the  Diet 
held  in  1550  Duke  Moritz  uttered  a  bold  declaration  of  his 
opinions,  which  could  not  but  suggest  a  coming  storm.  He 
desired  a  review  of  all  the  religious  disputes  from  the  beginning, 
and  demanded  that  "  the  divines  of  the  Augsburg  confession 
should  not  only  be  heard  but  also  have  deliberative  and  decisive 
voices  :  that  the  Pope  should  submit  to  the  Council  and  not 
preside  at  it,  and  release  the  Bishops  from  their  oaths,  that  they 
might  speak  with  greater  freedom. '"^^  The  Emperor  seemed 
blind  to  his  danger  :  perhaps  he  thought  that  Moritz  was  not  in 
earnest.  At  any  rate  he  trusted  him  still  further  by  giving  him 
the  command  of  the  troops  sent  to  reduce  Magdeburg.  That 
city  had  been  one  of  the  first  to  receive  the  Lutheran  doctrines, 
and  had  remained  firm  ever  since  in  those  opinions.  It  had 
refused  to  accept  The  Interim,  and  all  attempts  to  reduce  it  to 
obedience  had  hitherto  failed.  Duke  George  of  Mecklenburg  had 
defeated  the  citizens  in  the  open  country,  but  as  soon  as  they 
were  returned  behind  their  walls  he  could  make  no  impression  upon 
them.  But  in  the  hands  of  Elector  Moritz  things  might  take  a 
different  course.  Yet  it  was  not  so.  He  had  a  large  army — which 
he  managed  to  be  continually  increasing — but  he  did  little  with  it. 
He  prevented  any  succour  from  without,  and  defeated  Count 
Heideck  and  Albert  of  Mansfeld,  who  were  attempting  to  relieve 
the  city,  but  the  citizens  had  made  a  sally  in  which  they  had 
captured  George  of  Mecklenburg,  and  their  vigilance  showed  no 
signs  of  relaxation.  The  siege  was  conducted  in  most  tardy 
fashion.  Finally  Moritz  offered  them  terms  so  advantageous  that 
they  were  joyfully  accepted,  and  the  Imperialist  troops  entered  the 
city  on  the  7th  of  November,  1551. 

Meanwhile  the  Elector  had  been  making  alliances  with  the 
King  of  Denmark  and  several  German  princes  as  well  as  with 
Henry  II.  of  France,  to  whose  Court  he  sent  his  friend  Albe'rt  of 
Brandenburg-Culmbach,  the  son  of  the  Casimir  who  had  put  down 
the  Peasants'  War  in  Franconia.  He  further  engaged  many 
of  the  Wiirtenburg  troops  and  their  leader.  Count  Heideck.  He 
had  for  some  time  been  interceding  with  the  Emperor  for  the 
release  of  his  father-in-law,  the  Landgrave  of  Hessen.     He  now 

79  Sleidan. 


,' 

^■* 


/ 


39 

reiterated  his  demand  in  a  more  menacing  tone.  All  his  plans 
were  laid,  and  he  was  secured  by  a  treaty  with  Henry  II.,  which 
provided  for  an  invasion  of  Germany  by  the  French,  who  were  to 
receive  as  payment  Cambrai,  Toul,  Metz  and  Verdun.  He  also 
entered  into  a  close  alliance  with  the  Landgrave's  sons.  But  he 
did  not  even  yet  throw  off  the  mask :  he  sent  instructions  to  his 
envoys  at  Trent  up  to  the  very  moment  of  his  declaration  of  war, 
and  even  pretended  to  be  going  there  himself.  At  last,  at  the 
beginning  of  April,  he  formed  a  junction  before  Augsburg  with 
the  Hessians  under  the  Landgrave's  son,  and  with  the  troops  of 
the  Margrave  Albert  of  Culmbach.  The  city  opened  its  gates  to 
him  and  he  entered  in  triumph.  He  restored  the  full  freedom  of 
Protestant  worship,  as  he  had  done  in  all  the  towns  through  which 
he  had  passed.  He  published  a  declaration  addressed  to  the 
States  of  the  Empire,  entreating  their  assistance,  and  explaining 
his  objects  to  be  the  restoration  of  freedom  of  worship,  the  liberation 
of  the  Landgrave,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  foreign  soldiers.  His 
success  caused  the  greatest  terror  among  the  Catholics.  The 
Council  of  Trent  broke  up  in  confusion.  The  Emperor  was  at 
Innspruck,  without  men  or  money.  After  a  vain  attempt  to  escape 
to  the  Netherlands,  he  managed  by  a  hasty  flight  at  night  over 
the  Alps  to  reach  Carinthia  in  safety.  His  capture,  say  some 
writers,  was  only  prevented  by  a  mutiny  among  the  Saxon 
soldiers :  others  tell  us  of  a  saying  of  Moritz — "  that  he  had  no 
cage  for  so  large  a  bird."  After  this  there  was  no  more  to  be 
done.  A  truce  followed  by  a  peace  was  inevitable.  Never  had 
there  been  a  victory  more  complete  or  more  sudden.  Moritz  was 
the  saviour  of  Protestant  Germany,  and  the  cost  at  which  he  had 
achieved  so  great  a  success  was  the  most  trifling.  John  Frederic 
of  Saxony  had  been  released  before  the  flight  from  Innspruck, 
and  the  Landgrave  also  was  now  set  at  liberty.  The  Peace  of  ^ 
Passau,  which  was  concluded  on  the  31st  of  July,  1532,  gave 
freedom  of  worship  to  the  Lutherans,  and  decreed  the  summon- 
ing of  a  Diet  for  the  redress  of  political  and  religious  grievances. 
Tranquillity  at  length  seemed  to  be  attained,  and  the  prospects 
of  its  continuance  were  hopeful.  The  Emperor  had  received 
too  severe  a  blow  to  venture  on  further  encroachments  upon 
national  liberty.  It  even  seemed  that  something  like  unity  of 
feeling  was  beginning  to  spring  up  in  the  nation.  The  whole 
German  people  without  distinction  of  creed  had  welcomed  the 
treaty,  and  that  chiefly  for  the  reasons  that  its  main  point  was 
the  exclusion  of  foreigners. 

But  peace  was  not  yet  universal.  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  who 
was  somewhat  inappropriately  surnamed  Alcibiades,  and  in 
whom  Prussian  historians  have  discovered  several  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  their  great  Frederic,  had  been  with  the  King  of 
France  at  his  capture  of  Metz.  Not  long  after  the  pacification  of 
Passau  he  was  with  the  Emperor  at  his  siege  of  the  same  city. 


^        %* 


40 

But  he  was  too  restless  to  be  satisfied  with  the  prospect  of  tran- 
quillity.    He  began  a  course  of  most  unjustifiable  attacks  upon 
the    Bishoprics    and    cities    upon    the    Rhine    and    the    Moselle, 
plundering  and   burning  wherever  he  went.     There  was  some- 
thing of  the  old  Ritter  about  his  reckless  ravages  :  that  he  had 
any  political — much   less  religious — object  is  in  the  last  degree 
improbable.     The    Protestant  princes  united  with  the  Catholics 
against  him,   for  the  whole   nation  was    indignant  that    such  'a 
disturbance  should  be  suffered  when  the  prospects  of  peace  were 
so  bright.     A  league  was  formed,  of  which  the   Elector  Moritz 
and   Duke   Henry  of  Brunswick  were  the   chiefs,   and   a   battle 
occurred  at  Sievershausen  where  more  than  three  hundred  of  the 
nobility  were  slain.     After  a  long  and  severe  engagement,  Albert 
was  totally   defeated,    but  not  until  Moritz  of    Saxony  had    re- 
ceived a  mortal  wound.     So,  at  the  very  summit  of  his  fortunes, 
and    before    he    had    reached    middle    age,    the    man    to    whom 
Germany  owed  her  liberty,  and  to  whom  she  entrusted  the  pre- 
servation   of    order,    fell    in    a    comparatively     ignoble    strife. 
Differently  as  his  character  may  be  regarded,  it  is  impossible  to 
avoid  an  acknowledgment  of  the  genius  that  animated  him.      At 
an  age  when  the   life  of  many  men    is   hardly  begun,    he   had 
achieved  what  foreign  kings  as  well  as  native  princes  had  in  vain 
endeavoured  :  he  had  completely  disconcerted  the  plans  of  one 
of  the   greatest  and  ablest  monarchs  in  Europe  :    he  had  won 
an  important  political  victory  for  Protestantism  at  a  time  when 
her  downfall  in  Germany  seemed  inevitable.      Brave,  handsome, 
courteous,  considerate,  we  cannot  wonder  that  his  contemporaries 
should  have  mingled  their  admiration  for  him  with  something 
of  hero-worship,  and  deplored  his  loss  as  a  national  misfortune.^ 
Happily  the  good  that  he  did  was  not  all  interred  with  him,  but 
lived  to  produce  a  peaceable,  if  temporary,  settlement  of  the  great 
religious  question. 

On  the  26th  of  September,  1555,  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  published 
the  Religious  Peace  which  marks  the  conclusion  of  the  first 
period  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany  by  the  legal  recognition  of 
the  Protestant  States.  The  principle  upon  which  this  peace  was 
based—'*  cujus  regio,  ejus  religio  "—may  not  have  been  of  the 
highest  morality,  but  was  certainly  in  advance  of  all  previous 
toleration.  That  those  who  did  not  hold  the  religion  of  their 
prince  might  leave  his  dominions  in  peace  was  a  real  security 
against  persecution.  Of  course  the  anomalies  of  the  arrangement 
and  the  confusion  that  was  likely  to  arise  from  it  are  patent.  But 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  as  far  as  its  religious  aspect  was 
concerned  it  was  in  every  way  favourable  to  the  Lutherans.  Nor 
must  its  political  benefits  be  undervalued.  It  gave  each  party  an 
equal  number  of  seats  in  the  Imperial  Council,®^  and  thus  furnished 

^  See  Sleidan's  account  of  his  funeral. 

81  That  is  to  say  in  so  far  as  it  was  a  ratification  of  the  Peace  of  Passau,  by 
which  that  provision  had  been  made. 


r 


t 


i 


i 


V 


41 


some  security  for  the  balance  of  political  power.  But  its  weak- 
ness lay  in  the  absolute  barrier  that  it  presented  to  an}^hing  like 
national  unity.  Its  whole  tendency  was  to  create  states  entirely 
cut  off  from  each  other  by  religion.  And  the  division  of  political 
power  just  mentioned  stifled  the  growth  of  political  liberty,  and 
confirmed  the  slavery  of  the  people. 

The  history  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany  cannot  satisfactorily 
be  regarded  except  as  a  whole :  the  miserable  tragedy  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War  is  an  essential  part  of  the  tale.  But  it  is  far 
better  to  drop  the  curtain  now,  when  something  of  religious 
liberty  has  been  obtained,  than  to  witness  the  horrors  of  the  last 
act.  So  then  let  us  leave  it,  as  one  by  one  the  striking  figures 
have  passed  off  the  stage  and  one  only  waits  for  this  Peace  to 
follow  them.  Luther  had  not  seen  the  triumph  of  his  followers. 
But  John  Frederic  closed  his  eyes  upon  the  achievement  of  what 
had  been  the  aim  of  his  life.  Moritz  died,  not  too  young  for 
fame,  with  the  words  "God  will  come"  on  his  lips,  as  if  he 
foresaw  the  dawning  of  a  brighter  day  for  his  country. 

There  is  but  one  of  the  great  actors  left. — Charles  V.  witnessed 
in  the  Proclamation  of  Augsburg  the  complete  failure  of  his 
policy,  and  then  passed  away  from  the  world  to  the  seclusion  that 
so  strangely  and  calmly  concluded  his  "  strange  eventful  history." 

And  so  the  tide  has  spent  itself,  and  the  ebb  bears  away  these 
heroes  from  our  sight,  while  we  look  eagerly  into  the  future  for 
the  wave  that  announces  the  coming  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
of  Wallenstein. 


Upstone  and  Doe,  Printers,  Queen  Street,  Oxford. 


.  .#^ 


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